NASCAR: Brian France files lawsuit over a parody Twitter account
By Asher Fair
Former NASCAR CEO Brian France has filed a lawsuit in Stamford, Connecticut over a parody Twitter account titled “Drunken Brian France”.
Brian France, who took a leave of absence from his position as NASCAR‘s CEO and has not returned following his arrest for DWI and drug possession in August of 2018, has filed a lawsuit against the operator of a parody Twitter account titled “Drunken Brian France” (@DrunkBrianF).
The 57-year-old nephew of current CEO Jim France and son of former CEO Bill France Jr. filed the suit in Connecticut state court on Friday, February 28 against account operator John Steele. The return date is Tuesday, March 24.
In the suit, France alleges that Steele has been “impersonating and targeting France”. The account’s bio does state that the account is a parody, and this has been the case for several years. The account was created in February of 2014.
The bio states: “The quintessential drunk & oxyfied idiot destroying what my family spent 60+ years building in NASCAR. You can’t be this stupid sober (Parody)”
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The account has more than 16,000 followers, although the publicity garnered by this lawsuit is sure to drive that number up, especially given France’s overall unpopularity within the NASCAR fanbase.
“Steele’s activity through @drunkbrianf is under the guise of [Brian France],” the suit states. “This includes the use of [France’s] name in the account name, the account handle and the use of a photograph of [France] as the account profile picture.”
“Steele’s tweets imply that [France] is the source of the content posted to the account. Steele’s use of the account is intended to deceive other twitter users — and anyone else accessing the account while online — to believe that the account belongs to [France].”
The full suit is published on the Connecticut state court site.
Despite the account billing itself as a parody, the litigation does provide multiple images of the account referring to France in the first-person point of view, and it provides other images of fans actually believing that the account belongs to France, via private messages and comments.
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Brian France claims in the lawsuit to have experienced “severe emotional distress and bodily harm” from the account’s “highly offensive” tweets. The suit requests a trial by jury, and it states that the amount in demand is “in excess of $15,000.00, exclusive of interest and costs and in addition to other legal and equitable relief”. France has a net worth of roughly $1 billion.