'A profoundly stupid man': Internet ridicules Devin Nunes for his laughable lawsuit against Twitter

On Monday, Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) sued Twitter for allegedly "shadow banning" his account to restrict his free speech, as well as two accounts called "Devin Nunes' Mom" and "Devin Nunes' Cow" for posting content critical of him. "In her endless barrage of tweets, Devin Nunes' Mom maliciously attacked every aspect of Nunes' character, honesty, integrity, ethics and fitness to perform his duties as a United States Congressman," read the complaint, which seeks $250 million in damages and also demands to reveal the identity of the people behind the two accounts.

The lawsuit is ridiculous on every possible level. To begin with, Nunes was not "shadow banned" in the first place — he was just one of a few conservative (and liberal) accounts that briefly did not appear in autocomplete search forms on Twitter, as part of an algorithm change that minimized users that post false and misleading content. Even if he had been "shadow banned," that would not be a legally actionable grievance — Twitter is a private company and it can ban anyone it likes for any reason. Furthermore, as a public figure, he would need to prove false statements made with "actual malice" to show that the two accounts he was suing defamed him, and they are clearly satirical in nature.

In no time, social media pounced on Nunes' thin-skinned attempt to play the bully in court: