Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) cannot sue Twitter for defamation over parody accounts pretending to be his mother and a cow on his family ranch, a judge has ruled. Judge John Marshall wrote that Twitter was not the publisher of the remarks in question and therefore was protected by federal law stating that social media companies are not liable for posts by users, a provision President Donald Trump has advocated against and Nunes argued did not apply. Nunes originally filed suit in March 2019 against Twitter, the accounts @DevinCow, @NunesAlt (which pretends to be run by his mother), and Republican strategist Liz Mair for causing him to win re-election by a narrower margin than he would have had they not poked fun at him. Marshall’s ruling removes Twitter as a defendant from the case. The other three remain. Twitter said in a statement that it “strongly believes the court made the right decision today.”
