Insulted Congressman Sues Twitter for $250M

Republican Rep. Devin Nunes is tired of being insulted by Twitter accounts like Devin Nunes' Cow, which calls him a "lil' treasonous cowpoke," and the now-suspended Devin Nunes' Mom. In a $250 million lawsuit against the website and some of its users, including the "Cow" and "Mom" accounts, the California lawmaker accuses Twitter of ignoring complaints about defamatory material, the Verge reports. He accuses the website of censoring conservative viewpoints and "shadow-banning conservatives" by causing their names to not appear as auto-suggestions. Engadget reports that Nunes blames Twitter for making his 2018 re-election closer than it should have been.

The complaint filed in a Virginia court Monday accused Twitter of failing to act when the Devin Nunes' Mom, among other things, "falsely accused Nunes of putting up a 'Fake News MAGA' sign outside a Texas Holocaust museum ... disparagingly called him a 'presidential fluffer and swamp rat" and "falsely stated that Nunes had brought 'shame' to his family," Fox reports. The lawsuit argues that Twitter is so important to current affairs that it needs to do more to remove defamatory content. "Access to Twitter is essential for meaningful participation in modern-day American democracy," states the lawsuit, which seeks compensatory and punitive damages as well as an order for Twitter to reveal the names of the people behind the accounts that insulted Nunes. (More Devin Nunes stories.)