Twins begin new Facebook action

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss are pushing ahead with another suit against Facebook, a day after they decided  against appealing…

Cameron and Tyler Winklevoss are pushing ahead with another suit against Facebook, a day after they decided  against appealing a US Supreme Court ruling upholding their $65 million settlement with the social networking site and its founder Mark Zuckerberg.

In a status report filed yesterday with the US District Court of Massachusetts, the Olympic rower twins and their business partner, Divya Narendra, said they would move the court for discovery on whether Facebook "intentionally or inadvertently suppressed evidence" during settlement proceedings over claims that Mr Zuckerberg stole their idea for a college social networking website.

The claim in the Massachusetts Court relates to documents and communications that would have thrown light on the exact relationship between the twins and Mr Zuckerberg at the time of Facebook's founding and says that Facebook should have disclosed those documents during the original settlement discussions.

The original settlement was intended to resolve a feud over whether Mr Zuckerberg stole the idea for what became the world's most popular social networking website from the Winklevosses, who like him had attended Harvard University. Their battle was dramatised in the 2010 film The Social Network.

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After agreeing to the cash-and-stock accord, the Winklevosses sought to undo it, saying it was fraudulent because Facebook hid information from them, and that they deserved more money.

Tyler Meade, counsel for the Winklevoss twins and Mr Narendra, declined to comment.

In a statement, Facebook's outside counsel Neel Chatterjee said, "These are old and baseless allegations that have been considered and rejected previously by the courts."