Twitter has released details of user accounts to three South Tyneside councillors and a council official seeking to unmask the author of allegedly libellous statements.

The council went to court in California, where the micro-blog service is based, in an attempt to identify the author of an anonymous whistle-blowing blog called 'Mr Monkey'. Starting in 2008, the blog made a series of allegations against the councillors but since 2009 these have increasingly been made on Twitter.