A Farmington Hills public relations firm has sued an unknown "John Doe" in federal district court in Detroit, demanding that the person stop making "false and defamatory statements" on the social networking Web site Twitter under the firm's name.
TFSC LLC, which does business as Tanner Friedman, filed the suit last week against "John Doe, an individual or Michigan corporation."
Company co-founder Don Tanner said the company hopes that by filing the suit, it will "set in motion a series of events that will force Twitter to comply with two simple 'asks''' -- namely, the name of the person who created the Twitter identity, and the ability for Tanner Friedman to assume ownership and control over the tannerfriedman Twitter page.
Twitter Tuesday afternoon was indicating that the page
www.twitter.com/tannerfriedman did not exist. Tanner Friedman said, however, that Twitter was also telling them that that user name as not available.
Said Tanner: "We are not asking for monetary damages. We are simply seeking to remedy this situation -- setting, we hope, a precedent and a deterrent for such activity in the future. Whomever did this has bastardized and threatened the integrity of Twitter and this emerging social media. After exhausting all other means of communication and resolution, here we are."
The lawsuit states that the tannerfriedman account was registered "on or near" Jan. 13 and posted a "false and defamatory statement." There were additional tweets on Feb. 17 and March 6, 23, 24 and 26. The John Doe also took actual tweets off Tanner Friedman employees' Twitter account and posted them on the tannerfriedman account to lend it an air of authenticity.
Said Tanner: "Before they were removed, the messages were far ranging but all were potentially damaging. Most re-wrote or twisted tweets from our personal pages or portions of blogs from TannerFriedman.com so that their meanings were lost or compromised. All of the tweets on the imposter page were designed to embarrass and-or put our firm in a negative light." He also said that "content and format strongly suggest an individual who works for a competitor."
The suit says Tanner Friedman complained to Twitter March 27. So far, all the social networking firm has done is take down the material.
The suit alleges a violation of the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act, unfair competition, trademark law violations and defamation.
The company asked for a speedy decision and advancement on the court calendar under court rules.
Twitter's Web site offered only an e-mail address as a media contact. An e-mail to that address was not immediately returned Tuesday afternoon.
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