Mark Zuckerberg's Meta Platforms Triumphs Over Independent Presidential Candidate Robert Kennedy Jr.'s Anti-Vaccine Group In Censorship Lawsuit
Mark Zuckerberg-led Meta Platforms (NASDAQ:META) has successfully defended against an appeal by Children’s Health Defense, an anti-vaccine group founded by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
What Happened: The group had taken issue with Meta’s alleged censorship of Facebook posts that spread misinformation about the effectiveness and safety of vaccines.
On Friday, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Pasadena, California, ruled in favor of Meta.
It said that the nonprofit failed to prove that Meta was influenced or coerced by federal officials to suppress views opposing the “government orthodoxy” on vaccines, reported Reuters.
In 2020, Children’s Health Defense filed a lawsuit, accusing Meta of violating its constitutional rights by labeling “vaccine misinformation” as false and revoking its advertising rights on Facebook.
According to them, Meta’s measures included barring users from sharing claims that COVID-19 vaccines are ineffective and directing viewers of Children’s Health Defense posts to the World Health Organization for accurate COVID-19 information.
The court also dismissed the group’s allegations against the Poynter Institute and Science Feedback, both of which help Meta in verifying the accuracy of content on Facebook.
Children’s Health Defense expressed disappointment with the decision and is contemplating its legal options, the report noted.
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Why It Matters: Last month, Meta faced criticism for its AI assistant's false denial of an attempted assassination on former President Donald Trump. The company later attributed the error to AI “hallucinations,” a common problem across all generative AI systems.
At the time, Joel Kaplan, the global head of policy at Meta, addressed the issue, stating, "Our systems were working to protect the importance and gravity of this event.”
He said the company has programmed its AI to not answer questions about the assassination attempt after it happened to prevent the spread of incorrect information.
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