Congressman Devin Nunes’ Attempt To Sue A Parody Twitter Account Has Only Helped It Explode In Popularity

Devin Nunes, the Republican California congressman whose infamous memo targeting the FBI on Trump’s behalf (and the Democrats’ response to it) ignited a media firestorm, is back in the news this week. This time, however, Nunes is facing heavy scrutiny on social media for a massive lawsuit he filed against Twitter and a parody account for $250 million. The suit is a serious matter, of course, but the parody account in question? It’s @DevinCow, which is purported to be a rather vocal bovine from Nunes family’s dairy farm.

According to the New York Times, @DevinCow only had around 1,200 followers by the time news of Nunes’ lawsuit had gone public on Monday. As of this writing, the fake cow’s follower account sits at 489,000 and climbing. Nunes gained thousands of new followers too, but with only 395,000 to boot, the social media platform’s busiest users have done everything they possibly (and legally) could to boost the congressman’s alleged viral assailant.

Aside from the silliness of it all, the parody account’s newfound popularity owes its current status to celebrity Twitter users like The Ellen DeGeneres Show executive producer Andy Lassner, who has been tweeting about the matter constantly.

https://twitter.com/andylassner/status/1107829128533663745

In a little over 36 hours, Lassner and his fellow provocateurs accomplished precisely what they’d originally set out to do: boost @DevinCow so much that the account would have more followers than Nunes’ own.

https://twitter.com/andylassner/status/1108408215803289600

Not that the achievement necessarily prevented Lassner, late night television hosts Stephen Colbert and Jimmy Kimmel, and others from piling on even more.

This is all so very stupid.

(Via New York Times)