Herbalife Is Trying to Unmask One of Its Critics on Twitter

Nutrition and weight supplement company Herbalife, which is perennially accused of being a pyramid scheme, is attacking a random Twitter user for calling it a scam.

The company hit Twitter with a request on Monday for the IP address and account details of a user whose account is devoted to slamming the company for allegedly deceiving customers and exploiting immigrant labor.

"The twitter feed of @AfueraHerbaLIES contains not only defamatory, disparaging, and deceptive posts about Herbalife and its products, but also contains numerous insulting and offensive statements about Herbalife's management team, its members, and even federal regulators," the petition filed by the company read, according to Reuters.

@AfueraHerbaLIES, which has only 107 followers at the time of writing, has tweeted messages like, "Your $ comes from PYRAMID SCHEME that EXPLOITS vunerable Latino Immigrants," and "People being Poisoned around the world by $HLF TOXIC unregulated products!" as well as comics disparaging the company.

$HLF PASA LA VOZ….HERBALIFE ES UN FRAUDE! pic.twitter.com/5o5W7zZLD3
— AFUERA HERBALIES (@AfueraHerbaLIES) July 22, 2015

Herbalife filed the petition for "discovery before suit" to identify the user so it can file a lawsuit against him or her.

"This is pretty straightforward," Alan Hoffman, a representative for Herbalife, told Reuters. "We are not going to sit back and let someone make false and defamatory statements about our company."

Privacy advocate Mark Weinstein said what Herbalife is doing essentially constitutes cyberbullying in some ways.

"I think it looks like Herbalife trying to flex their muscle and hush dissenters," he said. "It is unfortunate they are trying to bully free speech."

Twitter usually fights to keep user information private, but in 2011, it was forced to unveil an anonymous user in England who was accused of libelling local politicians. This case, Herbalife International of America Inc v. Twitter Inc., was filed in the Circuit Court of Cook County, Illinois.