Ryanair wins €250k award over US bomb hoax tweet
RYANAIR has been awarded almost €250,000 by the US Supreme Court after suing an anonymous Twitter user who posted an online bomb threat last year.
Brian Lake, from Koppel, a suburb of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, used the handle @GunnexGod when he made the terror threat online in February 2016.
He wrote: ‘Hello @Ryanair, you have 15 minutes before I commit the biggest terror attack the UK has ever seen on one of your planes. Be ready.’
In a move that will have repercussions for social media users, Ryanair used a number of subpoenas on micro-blogging site Twitter to obtain @GunnexGod’s real identity.
The Irish airline then launched court proceedings against him, filing for extortion and defamation earlier this year.
The US District Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania yesterday ruled in Ryanair’s favour and awarded the airline €247,951 in damages.
That works out at €1,907 for each of the 130 characters in Lake’s original extortion tweet.
Ryanair spokesman Robin Kiely yesterday welcomed the ruling, saying the Dublin-based airline will not allow anyone to threaten the company’s safety record and is committed to tracking down anonymous threats across social media platforms.
He said: ‘We welcome this US District Court ruling. The safety of our customers, people and aircraft is our number one priority and we will not allow anyone to impugn, threaten or undermine our 32-year unblemished safety record, and will pursue any “anonymous” social media offenders through the courts.’
Around a quarter of the money awarded to Ryanair was intended to cover lawyers’ fees and other costs incurred during the court case.
Meanwhile, the rest of the damages – a sum which comes to three times the amount of the fees and cost award, was: ‘based on the malicious act of defendant which gave rise to the instant lawsuit’, according to the official court judgment of chief magistrate Maureen P Kelly.
Both sides now have a 14-day grace period during which they can lodge an appeal against the ruling before it becomes permanent.
‘Safety is our number one priority’