Robert F. Kennedy Jr., Children’s Health Defense (CHD), and other individuals and organizations are suing the Trusted News Initiative (TNI) over antitrust and free speech violations. TNI is a coalition formed in 2020 and includes prominent legacy media companies such as the Washington Post, the BBC, Associated Press, and others. The lawsuit claims TNI joined Big Tech in censoring “misinformation” regarding COVID-19 and the 2020 presidential election. The filing says TNI members have “targeted and suppressed completely accurate online reporting by non-mainstream news publishers concerning both COVID-19 (on matters including treatments, immunity, lab leak, vax injury, and lockdowns/mandates) and U.S. elections (such as the Hunter Biden laptop story).”
From Reclaim the Net:
It adds: “By their own admission, members of the [TNI] have agreed to work together, and have in fact worked together, to exclude from the world’s dominant Internet platforms rival news publishers who engage in reporting that challenges and competes with TNI members’ reporting on certain issues relating to COVID-19 and U.S. politics. “While the ‘Trusted News Initiative’ publicly purports to be a self-appointed ‘truth police’ extirpating online ‘misinformation,’ in fact it has suppressed wholly accurate and legitimate reporting in furtherance of the economic self-interest of its members.” The lawsuit claims “this is an antitrust action” and notes, “Federal antitrust law has its own name for this kind of ‘industry partnership’: it’s called a ‘group boycott’ and is a per se violation of the Sherman Act.”
