Man prosecuted for maintaining firm Twitter followers

A man is being prosecuted for keeping Twitter followers that he involved while working for a US mobile news website.

Noah Kravitz tweeted for Phonedog as @Phonedog_Noah, but later altered his username when he left the firm – enchanting 17,000 followers with him.

The firm is now looking for harms of $2.50 (£1.60) per user, per month – an overall of $370,000.

Mr Kravitz said his ex company had given him authorization to carry on using the account after he left.

He told the New York Times that Phonedog had permitted him to make the account private provided that he decided to "tweet on their behalf from time to time".

The 17,000 followers, which have since got higher to 22,000, had been developed by Mr Kravitz during his four years at the company where he worked as a blogger.

Yet, after eight months the company filed a lawsuit saying that the account's followers were a user list, and that it had invested "considerable" resources into building it.

In a printed statement, it said: "The values and funds invested by Phonedog Media into increasing its followers, supporters and general brand understanding through social media are extensive and are considered asset of Phonedog Media.

"We aimed to forcefully defend our client lists and secret information, intellectual property, trademark and brands."

Commercial control of Twitter accounts has been an exceedingly debated topic. Legal analysts believe this fresh case could set an example for future possession fights.

"Firms will now be rising cautious ways of deciding if they want to tweet with a conjoined account," said Barbara Cookson, a scholar property lawyer in the UK.

"For usual businesses it's quite hard to acquire a following without a solid quality. You have to have a very strong brand for it to work."

Ms Cookson disagreed it is difficult to identify a financial cost to Twitter followers as it is not clear why they follow a exacting account.

It's arguable as to whether a Twitter follower list is similar to a mailing list.

"If Phonedog has been utilizing it to run bids, it possibly is a mailing list that has price."