Twins launch fresh case against Facebook


24 Jun 2011

A day after accepting a settlement, twin brothers Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss have launched a new case against Facebook, this time asking the U.S. District Court of Massachusetts to determine whether Facebook and its CEO “intentionally or inadvertently suppressed evidence.”

The brothers and their partner, Divya Narendra, have accused CEO Mark Zuckerberg of stealing their idea to create the social-networking giant while they were students at Harvard University.

In a one-paragraph court filing this past week, the Winklevosses said they would accept a settlement that was worth US$65m when agreed upon in 2008. They also said that – contrary to previous reports – they would not take their case to the US Supreme Court.

The brothers had sought rescind the settlement of US$20m cash and US$45m in stock.

This time, the twins are aiming to get access to instant messages Zuckerberg allegedly sent while at Harvard, and may throw a new light on their relationship, reports say.

The claim in the recent filing is Facebook should have disclosed those communications when they put together their original settlement.

A Facebook spokesman has said the company has “considered this case closed for a long time.”