Devin Nunes' cow Twitter lawsuit has already backfired

Rep. Devin Nunes (R-Calif.) literally did this to himself.

Just two days ago, the congressman decided to sue a parody Twitter account called @DevinCow because it was apparently spreading misinformation to its 1,200 followers. Now, largely thanks to Nunes' own self-raised stink, that cow has a lot more followers than Nunes himself.

In his Monday lawsuit, Nunes sued the entirety of Twitter for $250 million, saying it "shadow banned" conservatives, including himself, ahead of the 2018 midterms. That term refers to some Twitter users' favorite conspiratorial excuse for why their content is allegedly being hidden, as Nunes inartfully explained to Fox News' Sean Hannity after filing the suit. Nunes' suit also said accounts like @DevinCow and @DevinNunesMom served him "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." Really.

The Week

Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.

SUBSCRIBE & SAVE

Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.

Sign up

Commentators and comedians promptly dunked on Nunes' very dramatic lawsuit, and thousands of Twitter followers followed suit. As of Wednesday afternoon, @DevinCow had easily surpassed Nunes' own 395,000 followers, and the lead has only continued to grow since. The suit has also inspired dozens of other bovine accounts, and earned @DevinCow a whole herd of high-profile supporters. Kathryn Krawczyk