President Donald Trump and his supporters continue to beat the war drum against a wide array of threats that simply aren’t there while completely ignoring the monsters breathing down the world’s neck like climate change. This Tuesday, Trump went after big tech companies — again, for some reason. Without even trying to offer any evidence to back himself up, he claimed that Facebook, Google, and Twitter are out to get those on the right — but fear not, loyal Trumpkins, because the president asserts his side will “win” in this battle he made up.
He ranted:
‘Facebook, Google and Twitter, not to mention the Corrupt Media, are sooo on the side of the Radical Left Democrats. But fear not, we will win anyway, just like we did before!’
Although in this particular circumstance he didn’t even try to offer any evidence for his accusation, there’s plenty of wider context for this quote. Republicans have routinely claimed without evidence that big tech companies have targeted them for silencing campaigns, interpreting routine glitches in the system as evidence of a broad conspiracy to take down the “little guy,” or something. In reality, they’ve just displayed their ineptitude with staples of modern technology.
Just this week, that ineptitude went on display yet again when Republican Californian Congressman Devin Nunes sued Twitter for hundreds of millions of dollars because… to summarize… a “fake cow was mean to him on the internet.”
He’s claiming that the tech company has some culpability in the maintenance of Twitter accounts with the usernames “Devin Nunes’ Mom” and “Devin Nunes’ Cow” that spent their time tweeting mockery of the often volatile, high-profile Congressman. His complaint asserted that the accounts constituted a “corruption of American Democracy and society by intentional falsehoods, fraud, and defamation” — which is RICH coming from him since he helped shut down the House intel panel’s investigation into Russian election meddling while the Republicans were in control.
Besides that issue, it’s outlandish at best to suggest that obvious internet satire represents an existential threat to American democracy that should be handled by a defamation lawsuit.
Still, that’s the hill Republicans are choosing to place their bets on. Trump, having previously tweeted about the lawsuit and himself having called for federal investigation of satirists before, no doubt had the issue in mind this Tuesday.
Check out Twitter’s response below
Featured Image via YouTube screenshot
