Guy Sues Facebook For His Failure To Be Elected To Congress

from the proving-why-you-shouldn't-be-in-congress dept

Thu, Mar 3rd 2011 1:27pm — Mike Masnick

Another day, another silly lawsuit. Michael Scott points us to this hilarious lawsuit from Majed Moughni, who tried to run for Congress last year in Michigan. He came in fourth in the primaries, but he's suing Facebook, claiming it's responsible for his loss. How so? Well, he claims that he was accumulating friends on Facebook in the lead up to the primaries, and then Facebook killed his account. Facebook notes that his account was halted because of activity that appeared to be doing things similar to spammers -- and that users who face this issue are alerted to it before their accounts are cut off. It seems likely that this lawsuit will get tossed out pretty damn quickly, as soon as Facebook points out that it has every right to deny service to folks based on a desire to protect users. Section 230 allows companies to filter as they see fit and not see any liability for those choices, and it seems that this case should be covered. Of course, for someone running for Congress, you would hope they actually understood the law on these issues, but I guess that's not really a requirement.

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Filed Under: election, liability, majed moughni, section 230
Companies: facebook

20 Comments

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TriZz (profile), 3 Mar 2011 @ 12:46pm

Stupidity
I sincerely hope the judge, after throwing out the case, says something along the lines of "You didn't win, not because of Facebook, but because of your ignorance of the law."

*slams gavel*
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Jay (profile), 3 Mar 2011 @ 1:41pm

Q:
When has ignorance of the law ever been an excuse not to sue?
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Mark, 3 Mar 2011 @ 1:43pm

Re: Q:
Or be an elected official?
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weneedhelp (profile), 3 Mar 2011 @ 1:57pm

Re: Re: Q:
I thought that was a requirement.
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Chargone (profile), 3 Mar 2011 @ 2:05pm

Re: Re: Re: Q:
nah, that's just ignore-ance. if you see the difference.
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Mojo, 3 Mar 2011 @ 2:09pm

I hope they throw the Facebook at him!

*ducks*
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:Lobo Santo (profile), 3 Mar 2011 @ 2:10pm

Re:
That was a horrible pun!

*gooses*
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Topenade, 3 Mar 2011 @ 2:27pm

I wonder if he thought he could get rich on this.
1. Run for Congress
2. Spam Facebook to accumulate "friends"
4. ???
5. Sue those bastards!
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Gwiz (profile), 3 Mar 2011 @ 2:29pm

Michigan Bias
What's with all the Michigan bashing stories?

Mike is against Michiganders!

Oh...wait....maybe I just live in a state full of dumb-asses....never mind.
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Atkray (profile), 3 Mar 2011 @ 3:07pm

Re: Michigan Bias
"Oh...wait....maybe I just live in a state full of dumb-asses....never mind."

Now STOP right there!
Michigan isn't special all the states are like that.
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Mar 2011 @ 3:14pm

I just knew it was some stupid assed Republican, every day I become more libertarian.
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Capitalist Lion Tamer (profile), 3 Mar 2011 @ 4:41pm

It may be a new millenium...
but the "Like" button is not exactly the same thing as voting. It'll get there eventually, but Moughni learned the hard way, like all true pioneers do, that sometimes you have to wait for the future to catch up with you.

And like all pioneers, he'll have his forward-thinking lawsuit tossed out of court so fast, he won't even have a chance to die of dysentery first.
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BuzzCoastin (profile), 3 Mar 2011 @ 5:05pm

Surprising he wasn't elected
Surprising he wasn't elected; he seems to have the same intellectual abilities as most of Congress: ignorance of the law, faulty reasoning abilities and completely self-centered.
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Mar 2011 @ 6:52pm

So he lost to my second cousin. Interesting.
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Anonymous Coward, 3 Mar 2011 @ 6:58pm

Re:
Wait, n/m. I looked up Majed Moughni and he was running for the 15th district, different district. My mistake.

Interestingly, my second cousin (whom I will not name) won his election mostly just through facebook. Little, if any, mainstream media help. So the Internet is definitely changing how elections are being done and who wins and it is definitely giving other people a much more reasonable opportunity to win elections.
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Arin, 3 Mar 2011 @ 10:40pm

More to the story
http://www.pressandguide.com/articles/2011/03/03/news/doc4d6ad4e64c6c6062265850.txt

"Moughni had about 1,600 Facebook �friends� and was adding between 20 and 100 a day when the account was shut down. The wheels were set in motion, he believes, when Dingell supporters complained to Facebook about comments Moughni made on his page criticizing the Congressman for introducing a resolution recognizing Detroit Tigers pitcher Armando Galarraga�s near-perfect game last year. Instead of that, Moughni said, Dingell should have been condemning the assault of Turkish aid workers headed for Palestine by Israeli security workers.

Read that last sentence again. Devil's in the details.
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Mike Masnick (profile), 4 Mar 2011 @ 12:44am

Re: More to the story
Read that last sentence again. Devil's in the details.

I'm not sure how that makes the lawsuit any more reasonable in any way whatsoever.

How is this "more to the story"? It sounds more like "more wishful thinking."
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Andrew (profile), 4 Mar 2011 @ 6:05am

Re: It may be a new millenium...
As far as I can tell from the story, he was using a personal Facebook profile to promote himself, not a fan page. Personal profiles can only have 5000 friends; was he planning on suing Facebook for that too? (The person who won apparently had 6000 people who liked his page.)

He chose the wrong tool for the job and then got upset when he couldn't do what he wanted with it. Maybe he could sue foursquare too for only letting people who were actually at his rallies check in, rather than everyone in the state.
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karenyoung, 10 Apr 2011 @ 3:49pm

Young v. Facebook, Inc.
Facebook Account Deletion Lawsuit
Blog information -
http://fac�ebookaccou�ntdeletion�.blogspot.�com/
Case currently pending in Santa Clara County, California District Court
Possible Class Action status
Post your Facebook account problem on the blog
Or write to mskbyoungb�log@aol.co�m
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Anonymous Coward, 29 May 2011 @ 9:38am

Response to: Mojo on Mar 3rd, 2011 @ 2:09pm
Majed
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