Children’s Health Defense, a notorious anti-vaccine group, spearheaded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is suing Facebook and its fact-checking partners. The suit was for rejecting ads and labeling debunked claims about vaccines and 5G networks.
In the federal court in California, it alleged Facebook’s fact-checking program for false scientific or medical misinformation violates constitutional rights.
Facebook, its CEO Mark Zuckerberg, along with fact-checking organizations PolitiFact, Science Feedback, and Poynter Institute suffered the allegations from this suit. And it is escalating attacks on Facebook for policing pseudoscience.
Children’s Health Defense is a group founded by anti-vaccine activist Robert F. Kennedy Jr., who was a leading anti-vax advertiser. He is back with a new tactic and claiming fact-checking is “censorship”.
He was one of the leading purveyors of anti-vaccine advertising on Facebook. That was prior to the platform cracking down on spurious vaccine ads and promising to stop recommending anti-vax pages.
Facebook has topped the CHD’s page with a label noting that “this page posts about vaccines”. It also noted a link to the CDC website and disabled the organization’s ability to fundraise.
The complaint notes that fact-checkers also added warnings to some content that they labeled false. It drastically reduced the traffic to CHD’s own site from these posts, Specifically by 95%.
CHD has alleged that these result in “falsely disparaging” impression of the organization. It was implying that Kennedy’s organization is “not reliable” and promotes incorrect scientific claims.
Moreover, it claims Facebook is a government actor that should not have the right to limit users’ speech. This is partly because Rep. Adam Schiff has asked the company to take action on misinformation.
Lawsuits and Anti-misinformation Moderation
In a press release, CHD claimed that Facebook has insidious conflicts with the pharmaceutical industry and its captive health agencies. Additionally, it currently censors CHD’s page, targeting its purge against factual information about vaccines, 5G and public health agencies.
The court judges dismissed the argument that social media platforms are public spaces, which would be subject to the First Amendment. Rather than establishing why the fact-checking would be illegal, much of the lawsuit simply contradicts Facebook fact-checkers’ claims.
However, the case also piggybacks on larger attempts. That is to stop Facebook, Twitter, and Google from moderating content.
Many conservative politicians have claimed that Facebook and other social media platforms display political bias. Some failed lawsuits have been filed on this basis.
Kennedy’s suit goes a step further. It is suing Facebook for removing content that has been widely criticized as medically harmful.
It includes a Trump administration executive order that should make sites remove less content. This is in addition to other legal justifications.
It has been a struggle for social media platforms to stop false scientific claims from spreading online. Platforms have acknowledged the potential for tangible harm.
They’ve also become involved in political battles over topics like climate change and COVID-19. Two reports recently claimed Facebook reversed strikes against conservative sites that posted misinformation.
That included false claims about COVID-19 that both political conservatives and anti-vaccination groups like the CHD downplayed the threat of the pandemic. Combined with Trump administration’s regulatory push, lawsuits are a new attempt to make anti-misinformation moderation more costly.
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