Social media sites are walking all over UK laws

To say that our current laws and jurisdictions can’t cope with global social media sites is becoming more and more self-evident with the latest football scandal which escalated over the weekend. Whilst the name of the  footballer was revealed via Twitter and abroad,  the English media were enforced by the injunction to stay schtum. It’s clear that our laws will need to be changed to embrace our new global world of communication and social media.
Whilst said famous footballer tried to obtain a High Court order asking Twitter to reveal details of users who had revealed his identity, legal experts claim it was doomed to failure because the High Court in London has no jurisdiction in California where Twitter is based.
There was an avalanche of online publicity with 100s of Tweeters repeating his name which was further reinforced when the Today programme, BBC Radio 4’s flagship current affairs show appeared accidentally to reveal the footballer’s identity – BBC correspondents then tweeted his name making matters worse.  As the Scottish Sunday Herald also revealed his name, it’s quite clear that the our global world that shares news online cannot be restricted by injunctions.  The law needs to be modernised because enforcing injunctions and controlling the media can’t last.