Known for his controversial views, RFK Jr. has filed another legal suit against global social media behemoth, Meta, the parent company of Facebook. This is not his first legal rodeo with Meta, having previously sued them back in 2020. At that time, he claimed that the company’s fact-checking and moderation of his anti-vaccination viewpoints constituted them acting as a state entity which subsequently should be liable for its moderation actions. Unsurprisingly, this case was dismissed by a judge, who elucidated to RFK Jr. and his legal team that their argument was largely a misunderstanding of the mechanics of the law.
Fast forward three years and RFK Jr., now branding himself as a “presidential candidate”, in his latest episode, has sued Meta once again. His argument? Because he’s a political candidate now, the legal landscape should somehow change. Of course, it doesn’t. The lawsuit, which quotes an increasingly disturbing slew of out-of-context court rulings, points out that Meta is allegedly violating the First Amendment, a claim which has already been rejected on numerous instances. The notion that politicians have free rein to propagate any content, especially in the context of disinformation and hate speech, has been dismissed by the Supreme Court about 50 years ago. Private media entities cannot be forced to host views, even from politicians, that go against their policies or could potentially harm the community.
The crux of RFK Jr.’s argument is bizarre. The central grievance is that his political action committee, American Values 2024, had released a 30-minute documentary which Meta subsequently refused to permit for upload. A mistaken identification of the content as spam is given as the reason for the restriction, a common error in an automated content moderation landscape. But RFK Jr.’s team claims a shadow ban on the content even after the restriction was lifted, citing a reply from Meta’s AI chatbot as “proof”. Conflating automated messages with official company policy signals a serious lack of understanding of how these AI systems work.
This case is just the latest example of the constant battle between free speech, freedom of internet platforms to practice their moderating rights, and the misuse of such platforms for spreading of disinformation. RFK Jr.’s application of a Reconstruction-era rights law to this context, and his previous arguments that have already been dismissed, suggest this lawsuit could meet a similar fate as his past endeavors in court against Meta. Further developments will be closely followed by the legal community.
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