The computer repairman who gave Hunter Biden’s laptop to the FBI and Trump advisor Rudy Giuliani has sued Twitter for half-a-billion dollars because it called him a hacker.
John Paul Mac Isaac, owner of the Mac Shop in Wilmington, Delaware, accused the social-media behemoth of purposely defaming him when it blocked tweets about the New York Post’s exposé of e-mails on the machine. Twitter cited its policy that bans “hacked materials.”
And that, in turn, means Twitter accused Isaac of illegally accessing another’s computer — a false and defamatory claim that harmed his business and subjected him to threats.
In October, the contents of the laptop, including e-mails that documented the Biden Family’s global business activities, threatened to derail the presidential campaign of then Democrat candidate and now “President-elect” Joe Biden.
That didn’t happen because the leftist social and mainstream media buried the story.
The Twitter Rules
The lawsuit’s central claim is that Twitter, in using its “hacked materials” policy to shut down the Post’s feed, wrongly suggested that Isaac is dishonest.
Show TempplBut Isaac did not hack the machine, the lawsuit explains. He had permission from Biden to repair it, and it became his property when Biden did not pick it up.
Hunter Biden, the lawsuit says, dropped the laptop at the Mac Shop on or about April 12. After he repaired the machine, Isaac notified Biden and sent him an $85 invoice.
Biden never showed to retrieve it, and per the Mac Shop’s policy, 90 days later Isaac became the owner.
Between July and October, the lawsuit alleges, Isaac “had multiple interactions” with the FBI and Robert Costello, Giuliani’s attorney. They received copies of the hard drive. Giuliani gave one to the Post, which in turn published the explosive revelation that Joe Biden was neck deep in his son’s business dealings in China and Ukraine. The laptop also contained sensitive government information, photos of underage girls, and proof that Biden spent thousands on Internet porn.
The lawsuit also claims Isaac did not know the Post had the materials, did not give Giuliani permission to reveal his name to the Post, and did not want the Post to divulge his identity.
The Post also published a photo of his store without consent, the lawsuit says.
But the key to the lawsuit, again, is that Isaac had legal possession of the laptop. Thus, he is not a hacker.
The Smear
And so Twitter ignored that fact in citing its hacked materials policy to block the Post and other users from sharing the story.
Twitter “locked [the Post’s] account as it attempted to post and disseminate its exposé on the social media platform provided by defendant,” the lawsuit says. “In addition to locking [the Post’s] account, defendant published that it was doing so because the …. story violated defendant’s rules against the ‘distribution of hacked material.’”
Twitter’s rules clearly define a “hack,” the lawsuit observes, as “an intrusion or access of a computer, network, or electronic device that was unauthorized or exceeded authorized access.”
A hacker, the Merriam-Webster dictionary says, “is a person who illegally gains access and sometimes tampers with information in a computer system,” the lawsuit continues, and “the term hacker is widely viewed as disparaging, particularly when said about someone who owns a computer repair business.”
But, Isaac, the lawsuit says, is not a hacker:
The information obtained from the computer does not [constitute] hacked materials because plaintiff lawfully gained access to the computer, first with the permission of its owner, Biden, and then, after Biden failed to retrieve the hard drive, despite plaintiff’s requests, in accordance with the Mac Shop’s abandoned property policy.
Plaintiff, as a direct result of defendant’s actions and statements, is now widely considered a hacker and, on the same day defendant categorized the plaintiff as a hacker, plaintiff began to receive negative reviews of his business as well as threats to his person and property.
And so, the lawsuit says, Twitter owes Isaac $500 million.
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act won’t shield the site from Isaac’s lawsuit because that codicil of the law protects social media from lawsuits arising from what users say. Twitter is responsible for its defamatory claims.
After censoring the Biden story, Twitter clarified its policy on “hacked materials.”
H/T: Ace of Spades
