Dearborn attorney Majed Moughni says he lost his bid to unseat Democratic U.S. Rep. John Dingell last year, in part, because he lost his Facebook account.

Moughni, who finished fourth in the Republican primary with only four percent of the vote, filed a lawsuit against the social networking website last month in Wayne County Circuit Court.

Feb. 24, The Detroit News: "In an attempt to overthrow the Dingell Dynasty, (I) devised a plan to use Facebook to accumulate thousands of friends, who in turn would spread the message and overseat the longest-serving member of Congress," the suit states.
Instead, his Facebook page was yanked June 10.

It came as Moughni, 40, was using the site to criticize Dingell for questioning a blown call that cost Detroit Tiger Armando Galarraga a perfect game, rather than focusing on important issues.

"I had no chance without Facebook," said Moughni, 40. "They disorganized us in the middle of our campaign and we lost. Facebook took us off the market. They took us off the face of the earth."
A Facebook spokesman says Moughni's page was flagged for "suspicious or anomalous behaviors," noting the system automatically sent out warnings before the account was disabled. But Moughni claims he was simply sending out as many friend requests as possible in an attempt to build his base.

In a recent post on his new Facebook page, Moughni says he filed the suit on behalf of "thousands of users have had their accounts de-activated without any recourse" and is seeking an injunction forcing Facebook to halt the practice.

While he's not after any Facebook money, it's hard to imagine his suit is entirely altruistic. The case already is generating national interest and boosting his profile for another run at Dingell in 2012.

Moughni's no stranger to free publicity or lawsuits. He made headlines last year by leading a series of high-profile protests, and he sued Dingell in August, claiming the Dean of the House stole his "Make it in America!" campaign slogan.