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Devin Nunes, a California Republican, has been sued for defamation by Twitter and three users. He claimed that these had stained and that the platform allowed to do so because of a political agenda.
The lawsuit, filed in Virginia Monday, claims $ 250 million in damages. In pleading, Mr. Nunes, a loyal ally of President Trump and former chairman of the House's intelligence committee, reiterated several common Republican complaints that Twitter had repeatedly denied: censoring Republicans, censoring their accounts and actively helping their opponents.
Although the politicians are absorbed by the critics, the complaint describes the unacceptable tweets of the three users as "something that no human being should have to bear and suffer all his life".
To argue his case, he cited a wide variety of tweets including criminal misconduct charges, gross jokes at his expense and relatively mundane criticisms. According to the complaint, the accounts allegedly "falsely stated" that Mr. Nunes had "shamed" his family, that he had been voted "very likely to commit treason" in high school and that it included a cartoon depicting a sexual act with Mr Trump and Russian President Vladimir V. Putin. The complaint lists dozens of other tweets that he found insulting.
Mr Nunes singled out Liz Mair, a Republican strategist who said on Twitter that she would not comment on the lawsuit and two parody accounts: @DevinNunesMom, suspended last year, and @DevinCowwho is still active. According to the complaint, Ms. Mair allegedly co-ordinated with the anonymous accounts a "perverse defamation campaign", without however providing any evidence of her support or communication, with the exception of a tweet encouraging people to follow @DevinCow.
Experts generally say that the law protects the major Internet platforms such as Twitter, Facebook and YouTube from any liability based on the publications of their users. According to Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, they must not "be treated as publishers or presenters" of content, which allows platforms to exist without it being necessary. to pre-approve each message for possible legal problems.
But Nunes' complaint seeks to portray tweets addressed to him as proof of Twitter's greater efforts to undermine Republicans – a frequent rallying cry for conservatives. Nunes was a key figure in the House's investigation of Russia and a frequent target of critics who claimed he was abusing his authority by obstructing investigations to protect Trump.
"As part of his program to quell Nunes 'voice, to cause him extreme pain and suffering, to influence the 2018 congressional elections and to distract, intimidate and interfere with Nunes' investigation into the corruption and Russia's participation in the 2016 presidential election, Twitter has absolutely nothing, "the complaint said.
Twitter declined to comment on the trial. However, in public statements, including at the controversial hearings of the House committee in September, leaders have denied any political bias or agenda. Jack Dorsey, chief executive of Twitter, told the House committee that he found no difference in the scope of the tweets of Democrats and Republicans.
Mr Nunes repeated the denied assertion that the social network was a "ban" on Republicans, including him. The prohibition of Shadow – the act of a platform allowing a person to post, but not allowing others to see the publication, thus making it invisible – has become A political slogan in July, when a Vice News article used this term to characterize a Twitter bug affecting some prominent curators.
In fact, the bug only briefly affected their accounts by not displaying in network search results when a user searched for their name. the scope of their positions was not affected. But this claim has always been used by many, including Mr. Trump, as evidence of bias against the Conservatives.
The lawsuit brought by Mr. Nunes had the possibly unintentional effect of significantly increasing the reach of @DevinCow, the parodic account that had about 1,200 subscribers before the lawsuit was filed. The account had 43,000 subscribers Tuesday morning and was growing rapidly.
"I do not leave my daily work," explains the account posted on monday.
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