“This complaint concerns the freedom of speech and the extraordinary steps the United States government has taken under the leadership of Joe Biden to silence people it does not want Americans to hear,” the lawsuit reads.
QUICK FACTS:
- Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kenney Jr. filed a lawsuit against Big Tech company YouTube and its parent company Google.
- The lawsuit alleges that Google and YouTube violated First Amendment rights of free speech by removing Kennedy’s videos, speeches, and comments against the COVID-19 vaccines.
- Kennedy explains in the lawsuit that YouTube has “become an important platform for political discourse in America, a digital town square that voters trust as a place to get news and opinions about the issues of the day,” but has censored vital information for political discussion.
- Assaults against the First Amendment “seems to have started after Big Tech companies like Google, Facebook and Twitter blamed themselves for the election of Donald Trump as president in 2016,” according to the lawsuit.
- The lawsuit noted that Big Tech then began a collaborative effort to develop “misinformation policies,” Kennedy claiming that Manchester Public Television said following a speech, “YouTube will not allow us to post the video because of controversial vaccination content. MPTS has recorded more than 100 wonderful NHIOP events, and I cannot recall this happening before.”
- Kennedy describes in the lawsuit other instances of YouTube’s violations of speech, where it “relies on the government to decide what information to censor.”
FROM THE LAWSUIT:
- Much of the lawsuit focuses on what Kennedy describes as government overreach.
- “First, there is a sufficiently close nexus between YouTube and the federal government such that YouTube’s actions may be fairly treated as that of government itself,” the filing states, explaining that the platform’s COVID vaccine misinformation policies were connected to the opinions of government officials.
- “They say that YouTube does not allow people to say anything ‘that contradicts local health authorities’ (LHA) or the World Health Organization’s (WHO) medical information about COVID-19,'” the lawsuit reads. “These policies are subject to change, but only ‘in response to changes to global or local health authorities’ guidance on the virus.'”
- Because YouTube “operates as a public forum,” it “cannot remove protected speech, especially political speech, based on its viewpoint,” the filing describes.
- It adds, “Indeed, the policies give YouTube and its government partners unfettered discretion to decide what information they censor, including when they say the speech lacks ‘context.’ Thus, the policies violate both the overbreadth and void-for-vagueness doctrines.”
- “Mr. Kennedy will be irreparably harmed if the Court does not grant injunctive relief prohibiting YouTube from censoring him during his political campaign,” the lawsuit notes. “He brings this action to seek such relief and to prohibit YouTube from enforcing its unconstitutional medical misinformation policies against him while he is seeking political office.”
BACKGROUND:
- Representatives Dan Bishop (R-NC) and Harriet Hageman (R-WY) introduced a new bill in July that would hold federal officials accountable for violating First Amendment rights.
- “Freedom of speech is the bedrock principle of our nation. Unfortunately, many malicious actors, especially federal bureaucrats, are bent on undermining the First Amendment and censoring Americans at every turn,” Rep. Bishop said in a statement.
- Rep. Hageman shared similar sentiments, saying First Amendment rights are the “foundation” of all other rights, adding, “Yet censorship, suppression and deplatforming of free speech has been at the core of Biden Administration policy, and our government’s response to Covid-19 exposed a clear hostility towards religious freedom.”
