Slander vs. Libel

[russell]

After reading of a(n) (in)famous person's recent Twitter posts I was wondering; would such posts be classed as slander or libel?

Russell

[martyn94]

The prior question is whether it matters. In the US, almost anything of a public character (however bonkers) can be protectected "speech" under the First Amendment unless the Supreme Court has said no, certainly including published words on any public medium, but also including humongous donations by corporations to lobby groups pushing their views. Otherwise, I believe it is mostly subsumed under the wider heading of "defamation". In the UK, slander is things spoken to an immediate audience, including, by extension, sign language and presumably Morse code with flags. The rest is libel.