Shiva Ayyadurai Lawsuit Against Massachusetts Officials Dropped

Dr. Shiva Ayyadurai was suing Massachusetts officials who he alleged were responsible for his deplatforming by Twitter. Yesterday, he filed an amended Complaint, reaffirming the one claim that survived a motion to dismiss, which related to the claim that Twitter was a state actor because of its supposedly close interaction with the government.

But today, I see that he seems to have dismissed all his claims. Perhaps there's more going on here, that's how things seem to me.

Comments

[UVaGrad]

Someone should ask Dilan Esper what happened, since his client waived the attorney-client privilege about their conversations.

[Enrique]

he got paid off...

[Dr. Ed 2]

Well, this *is* Massachusetts, and I wouldn't be surprised....

🙁

[kotodama]

It seems like his reason for bowing out is pretty obvious. From looking at the docket, he was really struggling to accomplish anything substantive because of the distractions created by his attorney musical chairs and other antics leading to a serious threat of sanctions. While he did still have one sort of semi-viable claim pending (more on that below), it's easy to conclude that he saw the writing on the wall and lost appetite to forge ahead. It was a smart move IMHO; getting on Judge Wolf's bad side is the last thing a litigant should want to do.

As to the OP's statement that his remaining claim "survived a motion to dismiss", I'm not sure that's fully accurate. My best read of the docket is that the judge simply indicated a tentative inclination not to dismiss that claim. In turn, that prompted Shiva to file the latest amended complaint dropping everything but that one. But the judge also invited defendants to file a renewed MtD against that last claim. So again, I view that as meaning the claim has yet to emerge from the other end of an actual MtD ruling.

Finally, one big question remains: Despite the dismissal, will Dilan still get hauled into D. Mass. for a good old fashioned pummeling by Wolf? I'd pay a little money to witness that.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Maybe he is too busy inventing email again, curing (or is it disproving the existence of?) COVID, and preparing to be installed as the REAL senator from Massachusetts to devote his precious bodily time to the litigation?

Carry on, clingers. So far and so long as your betters permit, that is.

[kotodama]

Or maybe he wants to focus on rekindling his romance with The Nanny!

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

The fake marriage?

This guy seems a super magnet for self-inflicted mockery.

[apedad]

WOW! This guy invented EMAIL too.

Whatta guy...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shiva_Ayyadurai#Other_actions

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Much like Billy Blazejowski invented towelettes . . . and premade (in the tuna) tuna salad . . . and microwave clothing . . . and edible paper.

I recommend Night Shift without reservation.

[Dr. Ed 2]

Understanding the politics of Stephen King, I'm not surprised....

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Stephen King is unrelated to Billy Blazejowski and to the Ron Howard-entitled movie Night Shift.

[OtisAH]

You don’t think it’s because of the recent, and pending, sanctions decisions?

[kotodama]

I do! See above ????

[Glaucomatose]

How is this possible? I was assured by many reliable commenters right here on this very blog that Ayyadurai was likely to win, and that state officials were in big trouble! 600 years in prison was mentioned. You’re not going to tell me that was all delusional circle-jerkery, are you?

Next thing you know, you’ll be telling me that Mike Lindell doesn’t _actually_ have proof that Hugo Chavez stole the election with the help of Chinese hackers hidden in the basement of a pizza place in suburban Benghazi.

[Krychek_2]

Yup. You can make whatever outlandish claims you like on social media, but if you're going to file a lawsuit, you better have something to back you up, as Trump's lawyers are in the process of finding out.

[dwb68]

This guy does not strike me as the kind of person to let facts get in the way of a good lawsuit. Especially in the span of 24 hours. Obviously something else changed. Did they settle?

[UVaGrad]

At the hearing the other day, the judge found Dr. Shiva had waived both his attorney-client privilege and his Fifth Amendment right to refuse to answer incriminating questions.

I'd dismiss and get the hell out too if I were him.

[Krayt]

It's too bad this case had so much baggage. Still waiting for someone somewhere to start making progress on the scandal of First Amendment supression via government threats to corporations.

Otherwise, "censor harrassment, remember to start with our harrassing political opponents, or we will change the laws costing you tens of billions" will become a viable censorship tactic.

[Krychek_2]

I'm not sure, strictly speaking, that this is censorship, though I go back and forth on it. Is it censorship for the government to tell milk producers, "You may not say that a package contains a gallon of milk if it only contains three quarts"? In one sense, that is censorship of speech. Or to tell apple juice distributors, "You may not bottle colored and flavored water and tell people it's apple juice." Against, speech is being censored. Or how about telling a white supremacist group, "You may not use social media to organize cross burnings on black people's lawns." Again, speech is what is being censored.

And if none of that is considered censorship, at least for First Amendment purposes, then how are those examples different from what's going on here? The people being "censored" are people who are stoking the fires of insurrection with fraudulent claims of a stolen election, and spreading misinformation about a pandemic that's killing people.

[dwb68]

Government pressuring private actors to remove items... thats censorship.

The relevant part is #99+ of the complaint, and following items, where the election officials appear to have directed/reported to Twitter tweets that were direct screenshots of email conversations and had him censored and deplatformed. The 4 Tweets "specifically identified specifically identified Tassinari" (who is a MA state election director).

Whatever you say about Shiva Ayyadurai, Tassinari, emailing people in his official capacity as a state official, has no expectation of privacy in those emails and cant direct, coordinate , or coerce Twitter to remove them. The 1st amendment applies equally to crackpots like Ayyadurai. Twitter likewise by coordinating the way they seem to be doing with govt officials opens up a crap ton of legal liability.

If I were in Twitter legal dept, I would thank my lucky stars and make sure policy gets changed. The next time, it may not be a crackpot like Ayyadurai, and they will get sued out of business.

[Rev. Arthur L. Kirkland]

Pro tip: Do not mention that legal insight when interviewing for a job with Twitter’s legal department.

[Krayt]

In your example, government's interest is in truth in labeling of products. While that overlaps censorship (and compelled speech), and some certainly have issues with both of those, that's not quite the same as flat out silencing opposing opinions, especially in the political realm, which is why there is a First Amendment to begin with.

There are literally attack dogs slicing into the First Amendment using a combo of threatened billions in losses, and the labels "harrassment" and "dangerous".

Words the Tyrant King George III, Adolph Hitler, Joseph Stalin, and many, many, many more would look on glowingly as a clever tactic.

Egypt's military banned CNN at one point, saying it was dangerous for The People (how noble of them!) to see such things without government to provide context.

See how this works? Nothing good is happening in the US on this front.

[Krychek_2]

Krayt, to a certain extent, this is about product labeling too. The idea that the election was stolen from Trump is every bit as fraudulent as the idea that colored water is apple juice. That fraudulent claim is being used to this day to whip Trump supporters up into a lather, and there is no guarantee that January 6 will be the last we see of them. It's a lie with dangerous consequences that has the potential to get a lot worse.

This is not censorship of opinion. Facebook and twitter and other social media are not going to take any action against you for expressing the opinion that Trump was the greatest president in US history. Or that Biden is Hitler, Stalin and Mao all rolled into one. It's the people lying about objective facts that are getting deplatformed.

[Dr. Ed 2]

"It’s a lie with dangerous consequences that has the potential to get a lot worse."

John Milton addressed this issue more than 400 years ago -- the solution to lies is to tell the truth, the solution to bad speech is good speech.

And the worst part of censorship is the loss of the ability to control rumors. It is far worse when people can openly speculate on what is being censored and start believing things that would never pass a "straight face" test if they had to actually be articulated in public.

Do you not have faith that your side is right???

[Krychek_2]

Dr. Ed, in general I agree that the solution to bad speech is good speech. A mob, however, is an exception to that rule since by definition mobs aren't open to being persuaded by sweet reason. You really think that making a dispassionate appeal to the evidence would have persuaded the January 6 rioters that Biden really did win the election?

[Dr. Ed 2]

Depends on who was actually behind it -- and looking at what has come out about the FBI's involvement in the asinine attempt to kidnap the Michigan Governor and some very real questions about why Ashley Babbot was shot, I'm not convinced that this wasn't Pelosi's doing.

After all, where were all the cops???

As someone who has *serious* concerns about the legitimacy of the actual election, I can assure you that the current censorship isn't abating them.

[David Nieporent]

John Milton did not address this issue more than 400 years ago.

[Dr. Ed 2]

OK, 377 years ago.

[Dr. Ed 2]

"Or how about telling a white supremacist group, “You may not use social media to organize cross burnings on black people’s lawns.”"

Ummmm -- didn't the RAV case explicitly state that was unConstitutional?

The government can tell EVERYONE that they can't organize arson on other people's property -- but only telling a content-based group or addressing speech on a content basis is verboten.

In other words, they *also* have to tell BLM that they can't burn stuff on people's front lawns -- and that includes *everyone's* front lawn...

[Aladdin's Carpet]

I swear this guy confuses me. Like he gave a speech at my university one time and though there were undercurrents of anti-vaccinations the overall speech was brilliant and provided a number of insights into changing how medicine is done, most of which I agreed with and have been pushing for myself (in particular, most medicine is done through clinical trails rather than try to actually understand pharmacokinetics and mechanism design and that has certain problems, which can get complicated)

It is a shame that the kookyness has overtaken the legitimate work and insights the guy has. And no, he didnt invent email despite his claims.

[dwb68]

Smat people simply rationalize their kookyness with bigger words.

[rsteinmetz]

He's always been kooky.

[kotodama]

If there’s a link to the speech floating around I’d be curious to hear some of it. Don’t want anyone doxxed as a side effect though.

[dwb68]

Reading through the filings, all the parties should be happy to see this lawsuit go away, each for their own reason.

[rsteinmetz]

According to Wikipedia V. A. Shiva Ayyadurai (born Vellayappa Ayyadurai Shiva,[2] December 2, 1963)[3] is an Indian-American engineer, politician, entrepreneur, and promoter of conspiracy theories, pseudoscience and unfounded medical claims.[4][5] Ayyadurai holds four degrees from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), including a Ph.D. in biological engineering, and is a Fulbright grant recipient.

He's very smart and very sure he understands the universe better than anyone else. He's also pretty litigious.

[Glaucomatose]

My wife has a science PhD and a bunch of other degrees and has won a bunch of grants, too. If she started claiming that she invented email and had proof that the election was stolen but it was being suppressed by shadowy government functionaries, I'd get a psych consult.

[Dr. Ed 2]

At the very least you gotta admit that the shadowy government functionaries didn't exactly help with the legitimacy of the election.

The reason why you don't do shadowy things is BECAUSE people will legitimately presume that they facilitated the theft of the election.

And define "invent" and "internet" -- was UUCP and spools of magnetic tape in the trunk of someone's car what we have today? (Does anyone even have the ability to *read* magnetic tape anymore?) He may have invented some form of electronic communications -- my guess is that LOTS of people did...

[Dr. Ed 2]

The Commonwealth of Massachusetts is incredibly corrupt in dimensions that people often can't even comprehend.

I won't even get into the morass that is the mASSgop....