CorpComms Magazine

A US federal judge is seeking further evidence after an employee refused to hand his Twitter account over to his employer upon leaving the firm.

Noah Kravitz, a reporter who wrote for US mobile phone review site PhoneDog, took his 17,000 Twitter followers acquired on the Twitter handle @phonedog_noah after leaving his position. He then changed the name of the account to @noahkravitz and continued to send messages to the thousands of followers he had acquired while employed by the site.

He was taken to court by his former employers after it claimed the Twitter password and the identity of his followers were a trade secret. PhoneDog also claimed his Twitter followers were worth $2.50 (£1.60) each.

A federal judge in San Francisco refused to dismiss the former employer's complaint. Chief magistrate judge Maria-Elena James ruled that more evidence was required to determine the question of whether the password was a secret under state law. She also allowed the company to go forward with its allegations of conversion—a tort that involves taking and using the property of someone else.

The issue is becoming a growing headache for some employers, especially where high profile journalists are concerned. In September, the BBC's former chief political correspondent Laura Kuenssberg stirred up controversy after she took her 58,800 followers to rival ITV.  

share me: del.icio.us | digg | reddit | Tweet