Based on what an attorney for Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) had to say in court recently, you might want to be extra careful the next time you go on Twitter, because apparently parody accounts on the social media platform are as dangerous as both guns and fire.
As Newsweek reports, attorney Steven Biss is arguing there’s great danger in the fact that sometimes people make fun of others on Twitter:
According to the lawsuit, the Twitter parody accounts, @DevinNunesMom and @DevinCow, are involved in “an orchestrated defamation campaign of stunning breadth and scope, one that no human being should ever have to bear and suffer in their whole life.” Nunes’ lawyer said that Twitter allowing the parody accounts to exist was equivalent to negligently giving them a gun.
But wait, it gets even more ridiculous.
In court, Biss argued that Twitter was responsible for the posts that offended Nunes. Biss said that Twitter allowing the posts on its platform was comparable to giving a person a gun.
“What if you set a fire on your property and I told you it was choking my baby?” Biss asked Judge Marshall, “You should have to put it out.”
One post that Nunes found especially offensive was from Liz Mair, an anti-Trump Republican strategist, who shared an article from the Fresno Bee about a sexual harassment lawsuit filed against a winery that’s partly owned by the congressman:
HOLY CRAP: A yacht, cocaine, prostitutes: Winery partly owned by Nunes sued after fundraiser event https://t.co/1jvtS97Ymj
— Liz Mair (@LizMair) May 23, 2018
The lawsuit also claims that the now-suspended @DevinNunesMom account shared tweets suggesting that Nunes had engaged in obstruction of justice during his obsequious and frequent defenses of President Donald Trump:
And that Nunes was too busy “cradling the president’s balls full time” to take care of his constituents’ concerns. The account also shared a meme referencing the cult horror film The Human Centipede.
Twitter has asked Judge John Marshall to dismiss the case because it has no business operations in the state of Virginia, where the lawsuit was filed. Twitter’s user agreement clearly states that all lawsuits must be filed in California, where the company is incorporated and headquartered.
More troubling is the fact that Congressman Nunes and his lawyer seem to be unaware of a little thing known as the First Amendment, which does indeed cover parody and satire.
Judge Marshall said Friday he isn’t yet ready to rule in the matter, which gives more time for all of us to send Nunes a few tweets letting him know what a snowflake he is. The Twitter address for him is @devinnunes.
Featured Image Via CNN
