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Bird-Brained Litigation

On Monday, California Republican Representative Devin Nunes filed a $250 million lawsuit against social media giant Twitter, as well as specific Twitter accounts, claiming the website’s negligence contributed to a conspiracy against him that included defamation and other written attacks by a handful of users.
Sputnik

While other politicians are using social media to open dialogue and reach out to those they are representing, Nunes is taking aim at Twitter and two parody accounts in particular: "Devin Dunes' Cow" (@DevinCow) and "Devin Nunes' Mom" (@DevinNunesMom).

"This was an orchestrated effort. People were targeting me. There were anonymous accounts that were developed," Nunes voiced on Fox News Monday night, later adding that his lawsuit will be "the first of many."

The congressman claims Twitter is "shadow-banning" positive press of him and instead promoting the content posted by his accounts like those of his "mom" and "cow" (which has reportedly gained over 100,000 new followers on top of the modest 1,000 it had collected prior to the congressman's suit).

Meanwhile, this is the most recent original tweet by the rep, which actually piggybacked off a previous tweet.

The handle @DevinNunesMom has since been removed from the platform for reasons unspecified, but it's unlikely Nunes, who is a public figure after all, will be able to prove the handles knowingly spread misinformation with the intent to smear him.

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