Woman Sued $50,000 Dollars Over A Tweet

Twitter has blown up in today's popular culture. It's a website that allows you to post a status, which could be what you're doing, how you're feeling, or many other things. For one Chicago resident, her sarcastic update caused her more trouble than she ever thought possible. Amanda Bonnen was not a heavy Twitter user, she post a few times a day every few days and remained unknown to most of the millions of Twitter users. However, one status update changed her life. On May 12th, 2009, she posted this tweet: “Who said sleeping in a moldy apartment was bad for you? Horizon realty thinks it’s okay.” She was inviting her friend over while at the same time venting her frustrations with a bit of sarcasm.

The Tweet, posted under the now inactive user name @abonnen, was the reason for the libel lawsuit filed at Cook County Circuit Court, seeking $50,000 in damages. Horizon Realty, the company which owned the apartment in which she lived, were suing her to keep their name in tact. “The statements are obviously false, and it’s our intention to prove that”, says a representative of the company to a local newspaper.

Amanda was not informed of the actions that Horizon was taking before she was served, nor was she simply asked to remove the tweet. Horizon claims that "we’re a sue first, ask questions later kind of an organization.” The actions that the company took had many raising their eyebrows at the extreme severity, but even more watching what they said in their updates. More details of the lawsuit have yet to be released.