Who do your Twitter followers really belong to? Man sued for keeping 'company' followers
A man is being sued by his former employer for keeping his Twitter followers when he left the company.
Noah Kravitz amassed 17,000 followers to his @Phonedog_Noah account when he worked as a blogger for US mobile site Phonedog.
Kravitz kept the account open when he left the company but dropped reference to Phonedog from its username. Phonedog claims the followers he retained actually belong to the company and it is now pursuing damages of $2.50 per user, per month - a total of $370,000.
Kravitz told the New York Times that Phonedog had allowed him to keep the account so long as he agreed to "tweet on their behalf from time to time".
But now Phonedog has said in a statement: "The costs and resources invested by Phonedog Media into growing its followers, fans and general brand awareness through social media are substantial and are considered property of Phonedog Media."