Imagine, for a moment, that you are Devin Nunes, one of the slimiest fixtures in Congress. Imagine you spent years as a spineless Trump apologist, and that you used your authority on the House Intelligence Committee to hamper investigations into Donald Trump and to lie and disseminate cherrypicked half-truths to blame the Democrats for all of your lies. Imagine you had a shady relationship with not only shady Russian figures but shady figures within the Republican-Russian coalition, and your activities worked to keep Russia’s social media shenanigans in the shadows. Now imagine having the balls to sue Twitter because some parody accounts made fun of you.
Devin Nunes, a Republican congressman from California, said on Monday that he is suing Twitter, a GOP operative, and unnamed defendants behind parody accounts on the social network, for defamation and other claims, after those accounts insulted him on the platform.
In an appearance on Hannity, Nunes said he was suing Twitter in the first of many lawsuits he plans to file against technology companies for their bias against conservatives. That appearance came after Fox News reported that the congressman had filed a $250 million lawsuit “in Virginia state court” on Monday and posted a document that lacks a case number and any verification of filing.
Nunes, who represents the 22nd District in California, said in the document posted by Fox News that Twitter played a willing party to abuse he faced from a number of parody accounts, including one using the Twitter handle @DevinNunesMom. He also alleged that Twitter shadowbanned his account @devinnunes — a process by which a social network can quietly curb the distribution or reach of a user’s content without outright banning them — when he tried to respond to that criticism.
“The shadow-banning was intentional,” Nunes’ document reads, noting that Twitter is “essential” for the meaningful participation in American democracy. “It was calculated to interfere with and influence the federal election and interfere with Nunes’ ongoing investigation as a member of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence.”
I won’t speak to the shadow-banning thing because I tend to believe that Republicans confuse this concept of “shadow-banning” for the reality of “they don’t understand Twitter algorithms and they believe their tweets should be more popular.” As for suing Twitter because parody accounts are making fun of a SITTING CONGRESSMAN…wow. Thin-skinned much? I’m just going to include some highlights from the lawsuit and some tweets from the “Devin Nunes’ Mom” account:
4. Best line from the @DevinNunes complaint: "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."
— Yashar Ali 🐘 (@yashar) March 18, 2019
Devin Nunes' complaint is a more devastating takedown of Devin Nunes than anything anyone has ever tweeted
— a cow belonging to devin nunes (@timothypmurphy) March 18, 2019
there’s an actual line in devin nunes’ lawsuit against twitter that claims twitter trolls “falsely accused Mr. Nunes of having ‘herp-face’” and I think that’s neat
— chair admirer (@KrangTNelson) March 18, 2019
Reasonable people can disagree but I think this is the funniest part of Devin Nunes’s lawsuit. pic.twitter.com/j8rUesE9gz
— Barry Petchesky (@barry) March 18, 2019
Photos courtesy of Getty.
Peak white male privilege.
You mean White Male Ego
He doesn’t have the brain power of a daffodil to come up with this himself. Someone else is behind this to make noise, seed distrust of SM. Hmmm… Putin? Seems he’s cracking down on the press in his country now; no one can print anything “against” him. This is what he seems to want to see here.
“ENEMY OF THE PEOPLE!” sound familiar??
I don’t see it as white male privilege per se. But I do delight in the irony that that side tends to laugh at the “left’s” supposed desire for “safe spaces” for all the fragile snowflakes, and…. Well…. Look at him. So fragile. Twitter isn’t a safe space…. So cold….
He also has never heard of the Streisand Effect.
Hey Nunes – Fu$k your feelings!
Peak white male FRAGILITY. Buck up, snowflake, you’re a public figure.
d’oh, didn’t see this when I posted mine below. Great minds, etc.
peak white male fragility. jeezlouise.
I mention this and an acquaintance of mine just said, that he sees the same fragility in female black hispanics. Ugh!!!! I was like no, this isn’t the same thing.
We are in the dumbest timeline.
TRULY.
It is literally the Alternate Timeline from the second Back to the Future movie and Biff Tannen IS president!
Unless I’m missing something, he’ll have a hard time with the defamation claim against Twitter because the Communications Decency Act protects hosts and sites even if commenters post defamatory things. The act was passed by… Congress. Plus he’s a public figure, meaning he’d have to prove actual malice. Good luck Big D!
Yeah it’s gonna be another huge fail for Nunes.
He’ll have to prove damages too.
“Mr. Nunes suffered irreparable damage to his reputation when Twitter knowingly and maliciously allowed a parody account to fraudulently induce Mr. Nunes to ask ‘What is BOFA?,’ and further knowingly and maliciously allowed said parody account to respond ‘BOFA DEEZ NUTZ, TREASONHAMSTER!!!!!!!!’”
@ennui – fraudulently induce Mr. Nunes to ask ‘What is BOFA?,’ and further knowingly and maliciously allowed said parody account to respond * ‘BOFA DEEZ NUTZ, TREASONHAMSTER!!!!!!!!’”***
This is seriously, the funniest, best thing I’ve read in politics in ages. TREASONHAMSTER!! What? Hilarious!!! BOFA DEEZ NUTS! I am dying in my cubicle, LMAO on the super down low! Ha ha!
Go ahead and open that door. Then people can sue to shut down Trump’s lie-filled twitter account, then his son’s, and anyone else who spreads lies and hate.
“You have been stopped” oh wait, that’s Christie. They’re all the same cookie dough, aren’t they.
I want to find this funny if for nothing else than the raging hypocrisy of a party that labels anyone who finds fault with them a “snowflake”, but then I think of his fuhrer’s threatening to sick the FCC on NBC because his fee fees are hurt that SNL won’t stop making fun of him and I feel scared.
Both of them are throwing this around because they’re testing the waters. They want to do this and believe it is right and just that they do and both want to see how far they can take absolutely shut down opposing voices. That more people aren’t alarmed that the president has threatened to use a government agency to silence his critics or that an acting member of Congress is trying to litigate his enemies into the ground is terrifying.
^^^^^^^^^ this.
No, you’re right. It’s funny but terrifying at the same time. That’s why I have to laugh at it. If I don’t, then I’ll just freak out.
And this happened yesterday: Russian President Vladimir Putin has signed a new law which will allow the punishment of individuals and online media for spreading what Russia calls “fake news” and information which “disrespects” the state.
Waiting for Trump to try something similar.
Yes you’re absolutely right.
I don’t think this lawsuit will go anywhere but it’s important to point out the timing and I DO think they’re testing the waters.
If they are testing the waters Devin tested the wrong pond. He filed in State of Virginia? Hello this is a federal issue and belongs in federal court – CA more to the point since Twitter is located in Northern California.
His attorney of record also received multiple disciplinary actions per the good posters on Twitter.
This is like the keystone cops of law. I doubt he will actually file. This is all phony.
No, hang on. Any minute now Don “Tweedlesomehowevendumber” Trump Jnr is sure to write another scathing op-ed, this time denouncing Nunes for trying to silence opposing voices on social media.
Any.
Minute.
Now.
This this this this this! We can’t afford to laugh at or be amused by these fascists. We need to be able to see through the ridiculousness to understand their real intentions.
Yes, as defending yourself from his frivolous lawsuit will cost a lot of money. So people may back off from satire and speaking out to avoid financial ruin. I hate these traitors!
The best satirical lawsuit never filed:
https://la.utexas.edu/users/jmciver/357L/WileECoyoteVACME.htm
He has waaaaaay too much time on his hands.
“Boo Hoo, Twitter made fun of me, Wahhh!” These stupid men in the White House needs to grow a pair of balls.
Nunes my phone keeps autocorrecting
Moooooll
The intensity of it all.
I’m filing a lawsuit against the U.S. legal system to redress the fact that in 20+ years of practicing law, I have never gotten the opportunity to type anything remotely as hilarious as “falsely accused Mr. Nunes of having ‘herp-face’” into a pleading.
i’m going to laugh at your comment all day. this was priceless.
Oh what fun discovery will be! Did nobody explain to this treasonous fool that he must prove damages? Beyond his hurt feelings?
i’m sorry but he needs to GTFO. call me when someone is knocking on his door asking him to exhume the remains of his murdered child b/c his 15th address was published on twitter….like the parents in sandy hook.
twitter, youtube and facebook are toxic and it causes real pain to people who didn’t ask to be public figures. devin nunes asked for the spotlight – now he’s got it. If he wants it to change he should use his considerable influence to regulate the platforms….except – how would republicans ever get elected since their primary campaign strategy is to use social media to dangerously misinform people and get russian bots to hack accounts.
Aw what a special snowflake.
Remember the time from two years ago, when he high-tailed it to the WH to tell Trump something that the WH had told Nunes? Or whatever happened then ha. And we all thought that was just the most ridiculous thing that could happen. Turns out that was just a taste of what was going to happen. Sigh.
Please. As if various right wing and GOP figures — including the effing POTUS — don’t defame people on social media on a daily basis. WTAF?
Also, is shadow banning even a real thing? I thought it was another right wing conspiracy theory.
No, it’s not. As evidenced by the number of tweets (that everyone could see!) from people complaining that they’d been “shadowbanned”. Derp.
Imagine if Beto sued for what the OFFICIAL GOP account said about him just last Sunday? Imagine if Obama sued for birtherism? Imagine if Hillary sued for any NUMBER of horrible false claims about her from pizzagate to claims that she was in terrible health and close to death. I mean….JFC these Rethuglicans are a special kind of fragile.
Yes, those were the exact things I was thinking about. Plus Trump calling Joe Biden “Low IQ.” They really are fragile and hypocritical thugs.
Just how broke is this dude to file this lawsuit. He is hoping for a quick check. For someone who sold his soul to Russia, he should have something put away. Was it one of that, ‘I’ll pick up the check next time’ and time and time again Putin forgot his wallet.
Exactly! Even a settlement that’s a fraction of the $250 million he wants will help him pay his legal bills. He doesn’t care about Twitter insults. He knows an indictment is coming.
If he thinks he’s getting a quick check out of this, he is clueless on how civil litigation works. And his lawyers aren’t going to do all that ediscovery work for free. It’s expensive and they’ll keep requesting more money. I doubt Twitter even has an actual name attached to DevinNunesCow beyond a cell phone number.
I have just followed @DevinNunesCow, another parody account that is, no joke, also a subject of the lawsuit. It insults Nunes via the extremely underused medium of dairy puns. That’s right. Nunes’s lawsuit alleges that he suffered damages because a fake cow said he was “udder-ly worthless.”
lols…pathetic.
Beware the Barbra Streisand effect. New Devin Nunes parody accounts are popping up all over Twitter. I like “Devin Nunes’ estranged cat”. “Devin Nunes cow’s 2nd cousin”.
LOLd at that second one.
Devin Nunes’ Undecended Testicle has me cackling. Twitter is on fire today, it’s glorious.
Oh Happy Day. Any Brits on this thread? Bring on some more!
Amazing how much conservatives love freedom of speech until its less savory capabilities are turned on them, eh?
never fails to astound.
first, the lack of understanding. they cry about “freedom of speech” when someone like Milo Yannowhatever isn’t allowed to speak on a college campus. they don’t seem to understand that not providing a platform FOR your speech is not actually silencing you. no one is entitled to a platform or venue. it doesn’t mean that twitter or facebook can’t ban you (private companies, and all). freedom of speech only means that the gov’t can’t arrest you for what you say, with a few exceptions.
then comes the hypocrisy. “Freedom of speech!!!1!1!!!1! unless…you know…someone is criticizing ME or MY SIDE…in that case, censorship!!!!!1!1!1!1!!”
A lot of them like to leave out the part about the government, that’s why. I had some idiot condescend to me about freedom of speech once on an article because I’d commented that I’d never attend a college that tolerated students using slurs or criticized “safe spaces.” (Because apparently, that’s being a ~whiny liberal~ and not utilizing discretion in who gets to receive thousands of dollars from me.) He got noticeably quieter after I quoted the Bill of Rights in full to him and then asked where it said freedom of speech meant freedom from repercussions, lol.
yes, that’s the other part of the lack of understanding, that freedom of speech does NOT mean freedom from consequences or freedom from a reaction/opposing viewpoint.
I’m interested to see where this goes. It seems like he wants to sue because someone on Twitter hurt his feelings. I don’t know of any public figure that has not been mocked or insulted on social media. Even famous children are fair game to some people.
“Twitter is ‘essential’ for the meaningful participation in American democracy.”
I’m very much afraid that thanks to Twitter-twit-in–chief, that the courts will recognize Twitter as a valid/legal form of speech. It might not happen with this case, but it could happen.
Herp-face!bwahahahaha
Since the lawsuit was filed Devin Nunes’s cow now has 80K followers and climbing. I followed the cow and everybody else on Twitter should too. Nunes is doing this to force private citizens to waste money on legal fees; he’s doing this to intimidate his critics, no matter how silly/comical/ironic the parody accounts are. What a sad piece of sh*t this guy is.
An interesting legal bit of this will be whether Twitter has to provide the cow’s registration information and whether that’s just a phone number or just an email address with no additional identifying content. Nunes may waste a fortune just trying to find out who these people are.
It’s up to 153.9K. Of course, there are now tons of new Nunes accounts. My fave is Devin Nunes’ Dad’s Broken Condom, who tweeted an apology to the world for not being stronger. 😂
I’ve finally found my Twitter calling.
I will post moo comments and cows from here to eternity on Devin Nunez posts.
The udderly delightful Devin Nunez Cow account has gone from 1000 followers to almost 157,000 followers as of right now. Since a few hours ago.
We are all Devin Nunez Cow 🐮🐄
Nunes, my phone likes to autocorrect
Moooooo 🐮