Russell Brand publishes Daily Mail reporter's mobile number on Twitter

Just days after taking a swipe at the Sun, comedian-turned-activist Russell Brand now has the Daily Mail in his sights.

On Twitter on Monday, Brand posted the business card of one of the newspaper's senior reporters, Neil Sears, who had apparently contacted him about a story.

The photo had Sears's contact details, including his mobile phone number which had an arrow pointing towards it, and there was also a scribbled note saying "please call" thought to have been written by the journalist.

• i100 has redacted a section of Russell Brand's tweet for legal reasons

His post was met with criticism however, after all, he has just published the journalist's contact details to over 8million people.

Within around 40 minutes Brand had deleted the picture of the business card, offering this as a way of explanation.

It is possible that Brand may have breached Twitter's terms of use by publishing what could be deemed private contact information.

In a similar incident, Guy Adams, a journalist of i100.co.uk's sister title The Independent, was suspended in 2012 after posting the email address of an employee at NBC.

Twitter said in an email to him that his "account has been suspended for posting an individual's private information such as private email address, physical address, telephone number, or financial documents".

The account was quickly reinstated however, with an email explaining it had been suspended because the complaint had been withdrawn - Adams also pointed out that the email address was in the public domain because it was available online.

More: Russell Brand is threatening to sue the Sun (for the second time)

More: Don't ever ask Russell Brand how much his house costs