Nunes sues Twitter for $250 million

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Intelligence Committee and its former chairman, is suing Twitter and a number of its users for more than $250 million.

The lawsuit filed Monday alleges the social media giant censored conservative voices by “shadow-banning” them, which Nunes says potentially impacted the 2018 midterm election results. Others named in the lawsuit include GOP operative Liz Mair, Mair Strategies, “Devin Nunes’ Mom” (@DevinNunesMom) and “Devin Nunes’ cow” (@DevinCow), two parody accounts that mocked the Trump ally and California Republican.

Nunes accuses Twitter of “facilitating defamation on its platform” by “ignoring lawful complaints about offensive content and by allowing that content to remain accessible to the public” despite alleged violations of its terms of service and rules.

“Twitter, by its actions, intended to generate and proliferate the false and defamatory statements about Plaintiff in order to influence the outcome of the 2018 Congressional election and to intimidate Plaintiff and interfere with his important investigation of corruption by the Clinton campaign and alleged Russian involvement in the 2016 Presidential Election,” the lawsuit reads.

The suit alleges Mair “relentlessly smeared and defamed” the California Republican in citing allegedly false reports accusing him of being involved with a winery embroiled in a scandal involving the solicitation of underage prostitutes and cocaine. Nunes has strongly denied the accusations in the report.

The lawsuit also accuses the social media platform of failing to remove “libelous” statements made about Nunes posted by Twitter handles @DevinNunesMom and @DevinCow.

“Defendant, Devin Nunes’ Mom, is a person who, with Twitter’s consent, hijacked Nunes’ name, falsely impersonated Nunes’ mother, and created and maintained an account on Twitter (@DevinNunesMom) for the sole purpose of attacking, defaming, disparaging and demeaning Nunes,” it states.