West Vancouver billionaire Frank Giustra has settled his defamation lawsuit against Twitter out of court.
Giustra filed a civil claim in B.C. Supreme Court in 2019, alleging the social media giant knowingly allowed false and defamatory statements about him to be published on the platform.
Because of his support of Hilary Clinton in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, and his support of the Clinton Foundation, Giustra and his charitable work became the subject of right-wing conspiracy accusations, his claim stated.
Some of the posts cited in the civil claim referred to Giustra, who founded Lionsgate Entertainment and numerous other ventures in mining, securities and agriculture, as being “corrupt,” a “murderous thief,” a “criminal” and that he was involved in Pizzagate, a “discredited and malicious conspiracy theory in which he was labelled a ‘pedophile.’” Other posts were threats on his life.
At Giustra’s request, some of the statements were deleted from the website, however, the company neglected to, or refused to, remove others, and allowed further false, abusive or threatening tweets to be published, the suit stated.
Twice, Twitter sought to have the civil claim tossed out in B.C. Supreme Court and B.C. Court of Appeal, arguing it should have been filed in California where the company is headquartered (and where the law explicitly gives social media companies immunity from prosecution over the content users publish on their platforms).
When Twitter did file a response to Giustra’s claim in 2022, lawyers for the company argued that Twitter is not in itself a “publisher” and that by signing up for an account, Giustra agreed to the company’s terms, freeing Twitter from liability for the actions of third-party users.
Further, they argued, Giustra’s reputation wasn’t actually harmed, as many of the tweets in questions were “incoherent” and wouldn’t change the opinions of “right-thinking members of society.”
An update filed in B.C. Supreme Court on Jan. 6 formally dismisses Giustra’s claim, with the consent of both parties, and orders Giustra and Twitter to cover their own legal costs.
The terms of Giustra’s settlement with Twitter are not public, and Giustra’s lawyer Fred Kozak said they cannot offer further comment on the agreement.
Although the question over whether Twitter was legally liable for the tweets that were the subject of the suit won’t be answered by the courts, the case did provide some clarity on whether or not similar cases can be litigated here, Kozak said.
“Mr. Giustra started this action because he wanted to hold Twitter accountable in circumstances where it knew about defamatory, hateful and threatening tweets made on its platform by anonymous users but refused to remove them,” he said. “However, Mr. Giustra succeeded at both the B.C. Supreme Court and the Court of Appeal, confirming that Twitter’s liability could be determined in B.C. Courts.”
