Fox News legal analyst Andrew Napolitano called Rep. Devin Nunes (R-CA) recent lawsuit against Twitter, a Republican operative and two fake Twitter accounts “novel,” but shrugged off the congressman’s legal standing.
“I think it’s a novel litigation. We haven’t seen anything like this before. Usually when public officials sue because of what somebody said or didn’t say about them, they lose,” he said on “Fox and Friends” Tuesday. “The theory being they have as big a megaphone as the person they claim has harmed them. And the First Amendment does not regulate Twitter. It’s a private entity. I don’t know where it’s going to go. He may be doing this just to make a statement.”
Napolitano said if Nunes is trying to make a political statement, the plan could backfire: “Sometimes courts don’t like to be used to make political statements, but we will see where this goes.”
“Fox and Friends” host and regular Trump-cheerleader Brian Kilmeade cut Napolitano off, raising the conspiracy theory that social media outlets like Twitter “shadow ban” or attempt to suppress conservative voices.
“If it happened to me I would be furious,” Napolitano said. “It’s not illegal. They are not the government.”
Fox analyst shrugs off Nunes suit: "It's not illegal," Twitter isn't the "government" pic.twitter.com/VYiZkn4M3L
— TPM Livewire (@TPMLiveWire) March 19, 2019
