The marijuana industry has recently become the target of Twitter bullying, in which pot-hating cowards, specifically one going by the handle @laughinpaulryan, have been spreading libelous information about members of the cannabis industry to prevent them from doing business. “They were repeatedly emailing commissioners, giving them false information about our company,” said Derek Peterson with the California-based Terra Tech. “They claimed the FBI had raided our offices, which isn’t true.”
A recent report by MainStreet indicates that the primary culprit in this debacle has been identified as 36-year-old New Jersey resident Norman Gates, who legal experts claim could be in serious trouble for slander.
“More cyber harassment of companies is happening online today because bullies think they are acting anonymously,” said social media attorney Ethan Wall. “What bullies fail to realize is that it’s easy to prove slander on Twitter where someone made false statements about a third party by counting the number of tweets and taking screenshots.”
In an attempt to combat an onslaught of tweets that led the Clark County Commission to decline production and cultivation permits for Terra Tech’s Nevada operations, the company hired a private investigator to find out exactly who was responsible for this sabotage. The firm discovered that Gates has some affiliations with individuals involved with criminal activity, but so far, they have not uncovered a motive for damaging the company.
“He does a lot of harassing people who defend Terra Tech on Twitter,” said Peterson. “When potential investors ‘Google’ Terra Tech, they want negative information to appear, which deters them from looking further into the company. His objective is to impact Google rankings for Terra Tech.”
Peterson says Terra Tech is in the process of filing a lawsuit, which he hopes will finally put an end to Gates’ assault of misinformation on the company.
“We believe Norman Gates doesn’t have two nickels to rub together,” said Peterson. “We want him to stop sabotaging our company, but we also plan to recoup our losses from being declined a dispensary license in Nevada, and for that we are going after the people who’ve hired Gates to execute this campaign of tortious interference.”
