Your motion to serve the influencer defendant by tweet is hereby GRANTED. On May 2, 2023, in a class action lawsuit brought by FTX investors against social media influencers who allegedly promoted such investments and shared financial advice, Chief Judge Cecilia Altonaga of the Southern District of Florida issued an order granting plaintiffs’ motion for leave to serve an influencer living overseas by tweeting and emailing the complaint to him.

Facts

As alleged, the defendant in question—Tom Nash—is a financial influencer with a substantial Twitter presence with “followers” numbering in the hundreds of thousands. Plaintiffs had tried to serve Nash, who lives in the country of Georgia, through an email account they had (coincidentally) found referenced on his Twitter account, to no avail. Following numerous other attempts to ascertain his whereabouts and complete service of process, plaintiffs ultimately sought the court’s permission to complete service through email and by tweeting the complaint to him. The court granted the motion.

Court Order

In granting the motion, the court explained that Federal Rule of Civil Procedure 4(f)(3) allows an alternate method for service to be ordered, provided “it is not prohibited by international agreement and is reasonably calculated to give notice to the defendants.” In this case, the court found that service by email, through social media, or through publication on a designated website, was not prohibited under international agreement between the United States and Georgia.

Although the notion of effectuating process by tweet is somewhat novel, as Chief Judge Altonaga noted in her opinion, courts have long had discretion to permit alternative means of service in situations where standard methods prove unsuccessful. For example, it has become common for attorneys to stipulate to service by email, and we also recently wrote about a bankruptcy court’s approval of service of subpoenas via email and Twitter here. Indeed, as technology continues to be increasingly perceived as reliable and omnipresent, the eventual shift to other platforms, including social media, will almost certainly continue to expand.

Conclusion

Whatever the future (of service of process and technology) may hold, Chief Judge Altonaga’s decision should serve, at a minimum, as a cautionary tale to those who avail themselves of social media to conduct business from outside the United States.

The court’s order is available here.