The parent company of the Roanoke Times filed a lawsuit in U.S. District Court against a former reporter "over the rights to a Twitter account," a move that could "define an important legal precedent," according to Michael Phillips of the RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH. The suit was filed yesterday by BH Media Group and will "determine whether Virginia Tech football reporter Andy Bitter owns the Twitter account with the handle @AndyBitterVT and its associated followers." Bitter left The Roanoke Times earlier this year for a "similar position at The Athletic." The lawsuit alleges that Bitter was "requested to turn over control of his Twitter account for the next Roanoke Times Virginia Tech reporter to rename and use, but he did not do so." The lawsuit cites the precedent that Bitter had "inherited the account from the previous reporter, Kyle Tucker." The ruling could have "far-reaching implications in the world of journalism, where reporters routinely build their own personal brand through the use of social media." The lawsuit contends that the approximately 27,100 Twitter followers Bitter had are the "property of BH Media, and Bitter using the account to advertise subscriptions to The Athletic is illegal." BH Media estimated that it would "take $150,000 and seven years (the length of time Bitter was with the paper) to hire somebody to create a similar list of potential customers" (RICHMOND TIMES-DISPATCH, 8/8).
SETTING PRECEDENT? In DC, Rick Maese noted the lawsuit is "noteworthy in that it asserts an employer owns an employee’s social media account and controls both access and rights to its content." Bitter has "continued to use the account ... to promote his work and that of his new colleagues since starting last month at the Athletic." While reporters "often change jobs, they don’t typically relinquish their social media accounts." They often "continue using the same account -- sometimes with a different handle -- to promote their new employer’s content while engaging with the same audience of followers" (WASHINGTONPOST.com, 8/7).
