Rep. Devin Nunes can’t sue Twitter over satirical cow account, judge rules
MP Devin Nunes included Twitter in a defamation lawsuit in 2019.
Chip Somodevilla / Getty Images
MP Devin Nunes cannot sue Twitter for tweets created by two parody accounts and a Republican strategist whom he accuses of defaming him. This was decided by a judge in Virginia. The satirical reports he targeted in the lawsuit included a fake cow and one that parodies the mother of the California Republican.
Virginia Circuit Court Judge John Marshall wrote that Nunes had “attempted to have the court treat Twitter as the publisher or spokesman for the content provided by others based on certain content being permitted or denied on its Internet platform,” and added. the court refuses, “said the Fresno Bee.
In his 2019 lawsuit, Nunes Alleged Twitter censors conservative voices by “shadow ban” and earns money with “abusive, harmful and defamatory” content. In addition to Twitter, the lawsuit also named political advisor Liz Mair and Twitter users @DevinNunesMom and @DevinCow.
The Nunes lawsuit alleged that Twitter users made defamatory statements about him during the 2018 congressional election and that Twitter had not done enough to curb this behavior.
Twitter said the decision to dismiss the Nunes lawsuit was correct.
“Twitter enforces the Twitter rules impartially for anyone who uses our service worldwide, regardless of their background or political affiliation,” said a Twitter spokesman. “We are continuously improving our efforts to serve the public conversation and will continue to be transparent to the public.”
The @ DevinCow account, which pretended to be the legislature’s cow, was apparently created to mock Nunes’ upbringing on his family’s dairy farm, which has been central to political identity since his political career. The account tweets many cow jokes and word games to promote the “movement”.
However, the account had fewer than 2,000 followers when the lawsuit was filed Balloon on more than 500,000 followers in just a few days.
Nunes did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
