CHD's Lawsuit Against Facebook, Zuckerberg and "Fact Checkers" for Government-Sponsored Censorship, False Disparagement and Wire Fraud in Court Yesterday

SAN FRANCISCO, May 6, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Judge Susan Illston of the Northern District Court of California heard arguments for and against the defendants' motion to dismiss yesterday in the Children's Health Defense (CHD) lawsuit, which claims that Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, and three fact-checking outfits censor what CHD believes to be important public health posts and engage in racketeering activities against CHD. A ruling is expected soon.

According to CHD's Complaint, Facebook has conflicts with the Pharmaceutical industry and government health agencies and has economic stakes in telecom and 5G. Facebook currently censors CHD's page, targeting its purge against factual information about vaccines, 5G and public health agencies. Facebook-owned Instagram deplatformed CHD Board Chair Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. on February 10 without notice or explanation in the current climate censoring anyone who questions the Pharma/Tech agenda or the safety of COVID vaccines.

This is an important First Amendment case testing the boundaries of government authority to openly censor unwanted critique of its narrative. Attorneys Roger Teich and Jed Rubenfeld argued before the court; CHD attorneys Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Mary Holland are also lawyers on the legal briefs.

Facebook has publicly stated it is assisting efforts of the CDC and WHO to censor unwanted speech about vaccines. CHD argues that Facebook's open collaboration with government makes it a proxy for government censorship, violating the First Amendment. The government's role in Facebook's censorship goes deeper than its close coordination with the CDC and WHO; it began at the suggestion of powerful Democratic Congressman and Intelligence Committee Chairman Adam Schiff, who in February 2019 asked Facebook to suppress and purge internet content critical of government vaccine policies. The WHO issued a statement commending Facebook for coordinating its ongoing censorship campaign with public health officials. 

CHD's lawsuit also challenges Facebook's use of so-called "independent fact-checkers," - which are neither independent nor fact-based - to create oppositional content on CHD's page, superimposed over CHD's original content, about matters of heated scientific controversy.  

The court will decide whether Facebook's new government-directed business model of what CHD believes are false and disabling a nonprofit's donate button passes muster under the First and Fifth Amendments, the Lanham Act, and the federal racketeering statute. Those statutes protect CHD against online wire fraud and knowingly false statements disparaging to the organization, while the Constitution protects CHD against government censorship, even through third parties, and from uncompensated taking of its property interests.

"Social media giants are imposing a totalitarian censorship to prevent public health advocates, like myself, from voicing concerns and from engaging in civil informed debate in the public square," said Kennedy. "They are punishing, shaming, vilifying, gaslighting and abolishing individuals who report their own vaccine injuries. Anyone can see that this is a formula for catastrophe and a coup d'état against the First Amendment, the foundation stone of American democracy."

Rita Shreffler
202-599-1461

SOURCE Children's Health Defense