'Self own': Far-right activist goaded into suing Muslim group ordered to pay $125,000

Far-right Congressional candidate Laura Loomer and her company Illoominate Media have been ordered to pay nearly USD $125,000 to the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) in what has been dubbed an "extraordinary self-own". 

The decision was made earlier this week by a federal magistrate judge in Florida after the case was bought to them by Loomer following her suspension on Twitter in 2018 for violating its policies on hateful conduct.

Loomer claimed that CAIR, a leading Muslim civil rights and advocacy group, had conspired with the social media platform to block her First Amendment rights. 

She also declared that her business had suffered due to the effect of her Twitter account ban, stating "reasonable expectation of economic gain in the form of revenue that they would obtain from Ms Loomer's use of Twitter", quoted Law & Crime. 

Loomer won her congressional primary in Florida last August with the backing of Donald Trump and has publicly proclaimed that she is a "proud Islamaphobe", once saying that Islam is the "cancer of society". 

However, the allegation against CAIR was apparently based on a prank by right-wing media figure trollers, Nathan Bernard and Chris Gillen of Bernard Media, who got in touch with Loomer pretending to be Twitter employees and confirmed her accusations against the Muslim group. 

The pair hoped to expose Loomer for spreading false claims about the Muslim advocacy group, however were surprised when she took her story to the Wall Street Journal who then published it, apparently falling for the prank too. 

Loomer has previously been banned from other platforms including Paypal for allegedly raking up USD $40,000 in donations from anti-Muslim hate groups, as well as Uber and Lyft and social audio app, Clubhouse for reported incidences of Islamaphobic hate speech. 

Justin Sadowsky, Trial Attorney with CAIR Legal Defense Fund, told The New Arab:

"Loomer’s lawsuit against us was brought in bad faith from the very beginning. She only brought the lawsuit to harass CAIR and fundraise off of her bigoted antics".

"The Court’s fee award is well deserved, and CAIR looks forward to collecting it and putting Loomer’s money to work to support civil rights for all Americans", Sadowsky added.