RFK Jr. Sues Google, Others for Freedom of Speech Violations That 'Block' His Message
“YouTube applies its Community Guidelines independently, transparently, and consistently, regardless of political viewpoint," emailed Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda Thursday, responding to a freedom of speech lawsuit (docket 3:23-cv-03880) filed Wednesday by Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. in U.S. District Court for Northern California in San Francisco. Kennedy's claims are "meritless and we look forward to refuting them," Castaneda said.
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Kennedy Jr.’s freedom of speech lawsuit against Google and other social media companies, alleges “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.” Kennedy is also a plaintiff in a recently consolidated freedom of speech lawsuit against President Biden and dozens of federal offices and officials (see 2307250012), in which the Republican attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana accuse the administration of “censorship activities” about COVID-19, vaccine information and mask mandates.
In the Wednesday complaint that names Google and its YouTube division, Kennedy said he's “not the only victim” of the “censorship campaign,” but he's also a “high-profile victim” who “often speaks at length about topics people would like to ignore.” Those topics include the negative health effects of toxic chemicals and "potential safety concerns about the COVID-19 shots” and other vaccines developed “since Congress gave the pharmaceutical industry immunity from product liability claims.”
YouTube “often removes videos of Kennedy’s comments from its public platform,” relying on its “medical misinformation” policies to justify the action, the complaint said. Google censored his interviews and speeches several times during his presidential campaign, including a speech Kennedy gave in March at Saint Anselm College in New Hampshire, it said. Google did so “based on statements from the Biden Administration about what information to censor,” alleged the complaint, and “it will continue to do so throughout the presidential campaign, especially as the primary elections get closer.”
The St. Anselm speech by Kennedy, identified in the complaint as a New York resident, involved his “concerns about the corrupt merger of corporate and state power,” which led to his questioning of “the increasing numbers of vaccines American children must take.” Kennedy’s criticism and questioning of the pharmaceutical industry over vaccines “has been deemed controversial by some people, including government officials whose funding depends on the pharmaceutical industry,” said the plaintiff.
The fundamental principle of free speech “is under attack,” said Kennedy, attributing the purported attack to tech companies “like Google, Facebook and Twitter,” which “blamed themselves for the election of Donald Trump as president in 2016.” Kennedy also cited the creation of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) in the Department of Homeland Security to protect the country from cyberthreats.
For CISA to carry out its mission, it requires effective coordination and collaboration among a broad spectrum of government and private sector organizations, said the complaint. “These organizations include YouTube and CISA’s mission apparently includes removing speech about issues of public concern that the federal government deems dangerous.”
The “coordination and collaboration between YouTube and the federal government included developing misinformation policies like the one YouTube has used, and will continue to use, to censor statements that Kennedy makes in the 2024 presidential campaign,” said the complaint. YouTube removed Kennedy’s Saint Anselm’s speech for “violating our policies on COVID-19 vaccine misinformation,” Kennedy said, saying the “raw footage … did not provide sufficient context.” YouTube also removed videos of Kennedy interviews with podcasters Jordan Peterson and Joe Rogan, the complaint said.
The “censorship program” prevents Kennedy’s message from reaching “millions of voters,” said the candidate. The decisions to “censor” Kennedy on matters of public concern weren’t made by YouTube acting on its own, “but as part of the partnership between YouTube and federal government officials, including the Biden White House, to censor dissenting views that started during the COVID-19 pandemic,” the complaint said.
Kennedy seeks injunctive relief preventing YouTube from enforcing its medical misinformation policies and declaratory relief that YouTube’s medical misinformation policies are “unconstitutional.” He requests an order requiring that YouTube restore videos of his political speech that was removed and an order declaring the platform’s “medical misinformation policies” are “unconstitutional on their face.”