American singer and rapper Lizzo is facing a lawsuit after posting a tweet in September accusing a Postmates driver of stealing her food while the artist was in Boston for a performance at Boston University’s Agganis Arena. Lizzo included the driver’s photo and partial name in her tweet, which allowed fans of the artist to track down the driver online.
Tiffany Wells, the driver in question, left Postmates after the incident and filed a lawsuit against the singer Friday for libel, emotional distress and invasion of privacy, according to the lawsuit filed in a California district court.
Lizzo initially published the tweet, which included the driver’s first name and last initial, on Sept. 16, the day before her performance at BU.
“Hey @Postmates this girl Tiffany W. stole my food she lucky I don’t fight no more,” Lizzo wrote.
The lawsuit alleges some of Lizzo’s fans made threats of violence toward Wells after seeing the singer’s post, using the information in the artist’s tweet to find Wells’s contact information.
As Lizzo has more than 1 million followers on Twitter and 6 million followers on Instagram, Wells “suffered severe anxiety and emotional distress” and had to quit her job at Postmates, according to the lawsuit.
“Unsure as to what an individual or group of individuals may do to cause her harm if she were to be recognized in public,” the lawsuit stated, “[Wells] was scared to leave her house and as a result was forced to stop delivering as a courier altogether – directly affecting her ability to earn a living.”
After receiving backlash on social media for her actions, Lizzo retracted her initial tweet and posted another tweet apologizing for “putting that girl on blast.”
According to Postmates policy, a customer will be charged the full order and delivery fee if the Postmate cannot reach them after five minutes. Wells spent more than 10 minutes trying to contact “Bonnie V.” — Lizzo’s alias on Postmates — according to the lawsuit.
Kabrina Chang, a clinical associate professor of business law and ethics in the Questrom School of Business, wrote in an email she thinks the case should be settled outside of court to avoid negative coverage in the press.
“I can’t imagine Lizzo wants this to keep popping up in the news,” Chang wrote. “Settling it quickly would be a better strategy.”
Chang wrote it is difficult to predict whether the lawsuit will be successful, as the plaintiff is suing for defamation, which is hard to prove.
“In a few cases, courts have said that you can’t expect the truth in communications over social media.” Chang wrote. “So, whether a court would say that given the context, a celebrity tweeting, ‘this girl Tiffany W. stole my food’ is a statement of fact that can be proven true or false, or whether it was merely an opinion … is hard to predict.”
Chang wrote Lizzo’s prominence as a public figure magnified the consequences of her actions.
“It looks like Lizzo is learning an important lesson about social media: the platform is powerful, for better or for worse,” Chang wrote. “Countless people misbehave on social media, and countless victims of that misbehavior are injured.”
Larry O’Toole, 71, of Dorchester, said he is unfamiliar with Lizzo as an artist, but he thinks celebrities should deal with situations like this less publicly.
“It’s a rarity when you find a celebrity who’s still down on the ground and level-headed,” O’Toole said. “They could complain, but they shouldn’t throw their weight of celebrity behind that complaint and do it in a public light, especially when they’re really well-off.”
Alexandra O’Connor, a junior in the College of Engineering, said she thinks celebrities sometimes don’t understand the consequences of releasing a public statement.
“I feel like people don’t realize how crazy Twitter fans can be,” O’Connor said. “So maybe [Lizzo] was just venting and then realized, ‘Oh my God, they’re gonna come for this woman.’”
Sarah Shahinpour, a junior in the College of Arts and Sciences, said she believes Wells was right in suing and that this situation may help to remind celebrities of the influence their statements hold.
“I think it’s fair that she sued,” Shahinpour said. “I don’t know if she will actually get anything out of it, but I think maybe it’ll keep people in check about being careful about what they tweet.”
