From a decision last month by Judge Eli Richardson (M.D. Tenn.) in Santoni v. Mueller:
[The Plaintiff's complaint alleges:] Plaintiff identifies as a businessman who "as a hobby … used various social media platforms" to discuss topics like politics, religion, and world history. While active on social media, Plaintiff utilized a pseudonym to maintain his privacy. Over time, his accounts developed a following and he found himself, "often engaged in debate … and banter with professional journalists, political pundits, celebrities, and other full-time intellectuals and creatives."
Plaintiff also found himself engaging with Defendant, where the two interacted on Twitter from 2016 until the spring of 2019. They never met in person. At times, the interactions between Plaintiff and Defendant would become so "heated" that Plaintiff would end up blocking Defendant from contacting him. However, Plaintiff would eventually be compelled to unblock Defendant; this cycle repeated multiple times between 2018 and 2019. The cycle concluded on June 7, 2019 when Plaintiff permanently lost access to his Twitter account and transitioned to another social media site instead. Defendant sought to establish contact with Plaintiff on the new site, but he refused to engage, which resulted in Defendant exhibiting a "pattern of harassment and tortious conduct."
Between October 2018 and March 2020, Defendant hacked or attempted to hack into three different "internet network accounts that were at one time owned or operated by Plaintiff and/or his family," including Plaintiff's email account. Through this access, Defendant was able to illegally obtain personal information about Plaintiff, which she used to hack into additional accounts belonging to Plaintiff and/or his family.
Defendant was able to discover who Plaintiff was involved in business and contractual relationships with and then contact them in an effort to cause them to breach their contractual agreements with Plaintiff. Defendant was successful in causing some of Plaintiff's relationships to breach their contracts with him. Defendant also contacted Plaintiff's friends and family by posting to their public social media profiles, as well as privately messaging them about Plaintiff….
