La Russa vs. Twitter: The Aftermath

By Jake McCormick

Apparently Lifelock doesn’t work on Twitter. Until now. Thanks to Tony La Russa, I’m waiting for the Lifelock CEO to run a commercial where his name and Twitter account are posted on the side of a moving truck driving around New York. This odd connection has been made courtesy of a lawsuit settled last weekend between the Cardinals manager and the social networking site that will place tougher restrictions on celebrity-created accounts.

Social networking has become an Internet phenomenon, as celebrity gossip, teenage angst, and identity theft have all highlighted news coverage of Web sites like Myspace, Facebook, and most recently Twitter. Twitter especially is the most controversial, as prominent people from Ashton Kutcher to Kim Jong-Il can create the illusion that they are talking directly to their fans through status updates. OK, I don’t know if Kim Jong-Il has a Twitter account, but it would only make sense considering he’s the biggest American cinema fan ever. That’s pretty much why he wouldn’t nuke us; we make amazing movies and he’d be forced to watch *gulp* British romance novel adaptations.

But with the great power of social networking comes great responsibility. Users have always ran fake celebrity pages, but that should change pretty quickly. On June 5, La Russa sued Twitter for trademark infringement and damaging his reputation. The complaint surrounded an imposter La Russa that was posting kicked-in-the-balls insult Tweets about deceased Cardinal pitchers Josh Hancock and Darryl Kile as well as La Russa’s own DUI charges. This wasn’t the first example of a celebrity backlash. Peyton Manning and the Colts played the United Nations by voicing their opposition to a fake Manning page, but failing to mobilize any action against the perceived violation.

Twitter settled the suit and agreed to pay La Russa’s legal fees as well as make a donation to his Animal Rescue Foundation. The site also did what every networking site with extremely lax rules for free speech does: Update its operating plans. Twitter will now require a verification step to prove the person running the account is a celebrity. Because I’m not famous, I’m not exactly sure how the verification process works other than it gives the profile a little stamp of approval graphic. I’ll let you know when I hit that cutoff between”The Hills” famous and Mylie Cyrus famous. I’m ashamed to even consider those comparisons.

It’s one thing to fill Cardinals message boards with fire of 1,000 suns hatred for Tony La Russa, but pretending to be someone to damage their reputation sounds a bit obsessive. I doubt La Russa planned to take this case to the Supreme Court, as the imposter page actually only had four followers and the user was banned from the site. It is typical of Tony La Russa to make a big deal out of the smallest thing, but his actions are a rare case in society- someone actually treated the abnormal growth before it turns cancerous.

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