Cameron admits privacy laws are being undermined by Twitter

Prime minister David Cameron has said that privacy laws need to adapt to the era of social media, as sites like Twitter make a mockery of super-injunctions.

Speaking on ITV's Daybreak on Monday morning, Cameron said that the identification of the footballer, known as 'CTB', by thousands of users on Twitter proves that social media is changing the way information is disseminated and that the law is out of date.

"It is rather unsustainable, this situation, where newspapers can't print something that everybody else is clearly talking about, but there's a difficulty here because the law is the law and the judges must interpret the law," he said.

"It's not fair on the newspapers if the social media can report this and the newspapers can't, so the law and the practice has got to catch up with how people consume media today."

Cameron suggested that the situation is giving judges the right to set new laws, and that the government should attempt to rectify the situation, but that it is not straightforward.

"The danger is that judgements are effectively writing a new law which is what parliament is meant to do," he said.

"So I think the government has got to take some time out and have a proper look at this, but I'm not sure there is going to be a simple answer."

The prime minister did suggest, however, that strengthening the rights of those affected by stories published in the press could curb the over reliance on court injunctions.

"Perhaps the way through is to look at the Press Complaints Commission [PCC] and the work that it does, and if people have more confidence in that we can have less of this current approach," he said.

The issue has broken legal ground after 'CTB' announced plans to sue Twitter for allowing its users to break his super-injunction in a move that has caused legal experts to question the strength of the law.

The PCC announced recently that it will consult on whether to monitor Twitter messages posted by journalists, given the increasingly controversial content being published on the site.