Anti-vaccine group sues Facebook over fact-checking labels – Business Insider

• An anti-vaccination group is suing Facebook for applying fact-check labels to posts that contain misinformation or falsehoods about vaccines.
• Children’s Health Defense — the anti-vaxxer group lead by Robert F. Kennedy Jr. — accuses Facebook of violating the First Amendment, a law that doesn’t apply to private companies.
• Anti-vaxxers have relied on social media like Facebook to spread false information about vaccines based on junk science for years, but Facebook started cracking down on anti-vaccine misinformation last year.
• Visit Business Insider’s homepage for more stories.

Facebook is facing a new lawsuit from anti-vaccination activists who claim the company is unfairly censoring them by applying fact-check labels to posts containing false information about vaccines.

Children’s Health Defense, led by prominent anti-vaxxer Robert F. Kennedy Jr., filed a lawsuit against Facebook in northern California Monday.

The complaint accuses Facebook of violating the First Amendment — a law that only applies to government entities and not private companies. However, the plaintiffs claim that because Facebook incorporated CDC guidance in its fact-check labels, the government has “privatize[d] the role of public censor to Facebook.”

Anti-vaxxers have relied on social media like Facebook to spread false theories about vaccines based on junk science for years. Most anti-vaxx content on Facebook originates from a handful of fringe sources, according to an investigation by The Atlantic.

Facebook first started cracking down on misinformation posted by anti-vaxxers in 2019, blocking the content from being promoted through ads and downplaying it in search results. Facebook still allows anti-vaxx content to be posted, but now applies a fact-check warning label including context about vaccines from expert organizations.

Facebook did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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