Frank Giustra wins right to pursue lawsuit in BC court against Twitter over Clinton allegations

Frank Giustra, the founder of Lionsgate Entertainment and CEO of the Fiore Group of Companies, has won the right to sue Twitter after B.C. judges ruled in his favour. Global News reports that Justice Elliott Myers stated that the provincial court has jurisdiction “because Giustra has close ties to B.C. and tweets were published in the province and refer to B.C”

The issue goes back to April 2019, whereby Giustra began a lawsuit against Twitter, alleging that the social media giant had “published defamatory tweets about him and neglected or refused to remove many of the posts despite his repeated requests.”

Giustra, who is on the board of the Clinton Foundation, said Twitter refused to remove or take action against tweets accused him of being involved in “Pizzagate,” a debunked child sex-trafficking conspiracy theory, accordingly ruining his image.

Although Twitter filed an application in June of that year, “asking the B.C. court to dismiss or stay Giustra’s lawsuit or decline its jurisdiction in favour of the courts in California,” this recent decision has seen the provincial court side with Giustra.

“The presumption is that a defendant should be sued in only one jurisdiction for an alleged wrong, but that is not a simple goal to achieve fairly for internet defamation,” stated Myers. He added that Giustra had demonstrated legitimate damage to his reputation here in Canada

“I do not agree with Twitter who argues that ‘of all places in the world, the plaintiff’s reputation has not been harmed in B.C,” Myers added.