Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., is suing Twitter and several Twitter users for allegedly spreading defamatory information about him.
The lawsuit filed in a Virginia state court Monday seeks millions of dollars in damages and alleges Twitter of “knowingly hosting and monetizing content that is clearly abusive, hateful and defamatory — providing both a voice and financial incentive to the defamers — thereby facilitating defamation on its platform.”
Nunes, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, is seeking $250 million in compensatory damages and $350,000 in punitive damages for allegedly “shadow-banning conservatives” to impact the 2018 midterm elections. He is also requesting an injunction to force Twitter to reveal the identities of certain Twitter accounts he claims targeted him.
The lawsuit acknowledges that social media companies such as Twitter are typically protected from defamation liability, but argues Twitter was aggressively involved in spreading and barring certain conduct that it should have held accountable.
“Twitter created and developed the content at issue in this case by transforming false accusations of criminal conduct, imputed wrongdoing, dishonesty and lack of integrity into a publicly available commodity used by unscrupulous political operatives and their donor/clients as a weapon,” the complaint reads. “Twitter is ‘responsible’ for the development of offensive content on its platform because it in some way specifically encourages development of what is offensive about the content.”
Nunes claims Twitter is partly to blame for causing him to suffer through “an orchestrated defamation campaign of stunning breadth and scope, one that no human being should ever have to bear and suffer in their whole life” in the past year.
The complaint also lists several Twitter users as defendants, including political consultant Liz Mair, who allegedly “implied that Nunes colluded with prostitutes and cocaine addicts, that Nunes does cocaine, and that Nunes was involved in a ‘Russian money laundering front.”
Mair declined to provide comment to the Washington Examiner, but tweeted later Monday evening that she was accepting donations to cover her legal expenses.
Also listed among the defendants are anonymous Twitter accounts “Devin Nunes’ Mom” and “Devin Nunes’ Cow.” The former reportedly “hijacked” Nunes’ name and falsely pretended to be Nunes’ mother in order to attack the California congressman. Specifically, the complaint accused the account of falsely stating that Nunes is a “lying piece of shit,” falsely stating Nunes is part of President Trump’s “taint” team and Nunes was “voted ‘Most Likely to Commit Treason’ in high school,” and for falsely suggesting that Nunes would be open to giving Trump a “blowjob,” and for falsely stating that Nunes has “herp-face.”
“In her endless barrage of tweets, Devin Nunes’ Mom maliciously attacked every aspect of Nunes’ character, honesty, integrity, ethics and fitness to perform his duties as a United States Congressman,” the complaint reads. The “Mom” account, which has since been suspended, was reportedly not investigated for defamation after Nunes’ actual mother flagged it.
This is a tweet Devin Nunes included in his complaint. pic.twitter.com/fjwuIaDQhK
— andrew kaczynski (@KFILE) March 19, 2019
“Many of the tweets were vile and repulsive, including tweets that depicted Nunes engaged in sexual acts with the President,” the complaint said.
Similarly, Nunes cited tweets from the “Devin Nunes’ Cow” Twitter account including ones that said Nunes’ boots were “full of manure” and that Nunes is “udder-ly worthless and its pasture time to move him to prison.”
Nunes additionally alleges Twitter “shadow-banned” him, a term used to describe when a user’s content is less visible to others, to “restrict his free speech and to amplify the abusive and hateful content published and republished by Mair, Devin Nunes’ Mom.”
According to the complaint, the shadow-banning was an “intentional” effort to influence the 2018 midterm election, and also to meddle with Nunes’ investigation as chairman of the House Intelligence Committee examining alleged misconduct committed by the U.S. government.
Twitter declined to provide comment to the Washington Examiner.
