Winklevoss Twins Slam Summers Over 'A**hole' Insult

The Social Network, in which Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss are shown wearing matching suits and ties to play with then-Harvard President Larry Summers. The twins met with Summers as undergraduates to indicate that Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg stole their estimate for a social networking site. The Winklevoss twins have since repeatedly sued Facebook.

"One of the things you acquire as a college president is that if an undergraduate is wearing a tie and cap on Thursday afternoon at 3 o'clock, there are two possibilities. One is that they're looking for a job and cause an interview; the former is that they are an asshole. This was the latter case," Summers said during an audience at the Brainstorm Tech conference. Rarely, have I encountered such swagger, and I tried to answer in kind."

The Winklevoss brothers, who are currently training for the 2012 London Olympics, didn't take kindly to Summers' commentary. If there's anything we learned around the Winklevosses from their prolonged, drawn-out legal conflict with Mark Zuckerberg, it's that they don't go down without a fight.

In a three-page open letter dated July 21, addressed to current Harvard President Drew Faust, the Winklevoss brothers and Narendra explain why they take effect with Summers' remarks:

It is deeply disturbing that a professor of this university openly admits to making character judgments based on their appearance. It goes without saying that every student should feel free to take issues forward, dress how they see fit, or express themselves without care of prejudice or public disparagement from a fellow member of the community, much less so from a faculty member," the alumni wrote.

Their letter also included a precis of their encounter with Summers in 2004, and one can't help but acknowledge the similarities to the scene depicted in The Social Network. The background of their encounter with Summers continues on for the distance of a page.

Story continues below

Then, in the final paragraph of the letter, the Winklevosses and Narendra state their request by saying, "As the current President, we respectfully ask for you to address this unprecedented betrayal of the singular relationship between teacher and student."

We're not certain what is expected of President Faust regarding this matter, but if the preceding is any indication, then maybe the Winklevoss brothers should reconsider their form of action when requesting help from Harvard Presidents on personal matters.

You can take the full letter written by the Winklevosses and Narendra, here.

In typeface you lost the picture of Larry Summers calling the Winklevosses "asshole[s]", we've posted it below.

FOLLOW HUFFPOST TECH

ON

Facebook:

Like

';var coords = [-5, -72];// display fb-bubbleFloatingPrompt.embed(this, html, undefined, 'top', {fp_intersects:1, timeout_remove:2000,ignore_arrow: true, width:236, add_xy:coords, class_name: 'clear-overlay'});});