Rather than quietly settle with Nunes and pledge to do better going forward, Twitter instead chose to go to war with both Nunes and Marshall. Working in tandem, lawyers for Twitter, Mair, and the users and organizations running the anonymous account smear operation against Nunes attempted to have the case thrown out of Virginia entirely, claiming that Twitter’s user terms required Nunes to file in California, a much friendlier legal regime for tech monopolies like Twitter. Nunes countered with the arguments that because at least one of the defendants perpetrated the defamatory actions in Virginia, actual harm was committed in Virginia, and Twitter actively does business in Virginia, the proper venue for the suit was Virginia.
Marshall took the arguments under consideration and sought to determine whether the facts supported keeping the case in Virginia. At one point, he asked Twitter to provide to him under seal information on the users managing the anonymous accounts and their locations, the number of Twitter users in Virginia, and the amount of revenue earned by the company in the state.
Rather than comply with the court order, Twitter gave the judge the middle finger and refused to provide the information demanded by the court. The judge responded by allowing the trial against Twitter to proceed in Virginia, a move that could wreak havoc not just on Twitter’s bottom line going forward, but also its entire business model. As a result of Marshall’s order, the case will now proceed to trial, and Twitter will be subject to full-blown discovery by Nunes and his legal team.
https://thefederalist.com/2019/10/0...could-turn-into-the-companys-worst-nightmare/
Marshall took the arguments under consideration and sought to determine whether the facts supported keeping the case in Virginia. At one point, he asked Twitter to provide to him under seal information on the users managing the anonymous accounts and their locations, the number of Twitter users in Virginia, and the amount of revenue earned by the company in the state.
Rather than comply with the court order, Twitter gave the judge the middle finger and refused to provide the information demanded by the court. The judge responded by allowing the trial against Twitter to proceed in Virginia, a move that could wreak havoc not just on Twitter’s bottom line going forward, but also its entire business model. As a result of Marshall’s order, the case will now proceed to trial, and Twitter will be subject to full-blown discovery by Nunes and his legal team.
https://thefederalist.com/2019/10/0...could-turn-into-the-companys-worst-nightmare/
