By Canadian Press

B.C. man sues Twitter for alleged ‘defamatory’ tweets linked to U.S. election

Apr 27, 2019 | 12:39 PM

VANCOUVER — A British Columbia businessman and philanthropist is suing Twitter for publishing what he calls “false and defamatory” tweets that escalated during the 2016 United States election.

Frank Giustra is the founder of Lionsgate Entertainment and CEO of the Fiore Group of Companies, and he’s also a member of the board of trustees of the Clinton Foundation.

He says in a notice of civil claim filed in B.C. Supreme Court that he faced a targeted attack on Twitter by a group who set out to vilify him for political purposes starting around February 2015.

Giustra says a number of defamatory and malicious tweets were published labelling him “corrupt,” a “murderous thief” and a “criminal,” and accusing him of being involved in “pizzagate,” a debunked child sex trafficking conspiracy theory.

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He says he asked Twitter on multiple occasions to remove the posts and the social-media company deleted some of them, but it has neglected or refused to remove others and continues to publish a “large number” of false, defamatory, abusive and threatening tweets.

None of the allegations has been proven in court and Twitter has not yet filed a statement of defence.

Neither the social media company nor Giustra immediately responded to a request for comment on Saturday.

The Canadian Press