A Welsh councillor has been ordered to pay damages in what is believed to be the first libel action resulting from comments posted on Twitter.

The High Court in Cardiff last week ordered Caerphilly councillor Colin Elsbury to pay £3,000 in damages, after he used the social network to wrongly claim that a political rival, Eddie Talbot, had been removed from a polling station by police during a byelection in 2009.

Elsbury, a Plaid Cymru politician, was also ordered to post an apology on his Twitter site, and could have to pay around £50,000 costs after acknowledging that he defamed Talbot.

Elsbury posted the comment during the byelection in which both men were standing for election to Caerphilly town council. Elsbury eventually won, with independent challenger Talbot coming second.

After tweeting the comment, Elsbury attempted to correct his post, claiming it was a case of mistaken identity, but Talbot took him to court.

Talbot’s solicitor Nigel Jones, director at JMD Law in Cardiff, said the damages award could open the floodgates to claims of libel on Twitter, or ‘twibels’, as they are known in the US.

He said: ‘It is the first case that I have heard of in Britain, but no doubt there will be more when people realise they can sue for Twitter libel.’

In related news, the government has unveiled the draft of the new Defamation Bill, which would potentially make it more difficult for claimants to successfully sue.