The Bangor solicitor who has represented famous faces from across the movie, music and political spheres has warned Elon Musk's Twitter plans could mean a "wild west" for defamation cases.
Paul Tweed has acted on behalf of Britney Spears, Liam Neeson and Arlene Foster among others in his defamation work.
He's warned that Elon Musk's plans to open up Twitter in the name of "free speech" could mean "a scenario where we're back to the wild west".
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Mr Tweed warned that there were dangers associated with the promise of having a totally open platform, chiefly the differences in the laws in the United States and the UK.
"In America, people hear and read things and they don't believe it because they know it doesn't have to be true, you can publish anything," he said.
"Here, if we read something on Belfast Live for instance, we expect it to be true, we expect it to be accurate, and it's under very, very strict regulatory and other controls."
The high profile solicitor warned that if Twitter opens up as Elon Musk has promised, they will face complications marrying that open nature to the various libel law frameworks across the UK and Europe.
"I think it could be on one hand, a lawyer's dream but on the other hand, a user's nightmare.
"People just still don't seem to understand that you can't just tweet and then walk, that just does not happen.
"A tweet is just the same as writing a letter into a newspaper, but the newspaper will check that letter, make sure it's not defamatory, but Twitter doesn't."
Mr Tweed believes Elon Musk's views on defamation may be influenced by a high profile win he had in court, in regards to a tweet he sent about a British caver helping to rescue trapped Thai schoolboys in 2018.
He was found not to have defamed the man, with the judgement made at a court in California.
"If that case was run in the UK or Ireland, you could have had a completely different result," said Mr Tweed.
"I'm not too sure whether he's thought all this through, in terms of what he's going to have to try and control.
"I'm totally frustrated with all the online platforms, 99% of my work now is against online publishers."
One of Mr Tweed's more famous recent cases was that taken by former DUP leader Arlene Foster against TV celebrity Dr Christian Jessen.
Mrs Foster was awarded £125,000 in damages by a judge who described it as "an outrageously bad libel".
"That scenario, look at the price he has paid financially.
"If you're gong to tweet, you've got to be prepared to take the consequences."
The Bangor-born solicitor warned that people will have to show caution in what they're willing to publish online in future.
"Think before you tweet and definitely think very hard before you retweet," he said.
"I am all for free speech, but it's got to be true and factual speech and there's a big, big difference."
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