Vimeo within its rights to take down Christian network’s anti-vax media: court

A Christian TV network lost its bid to revive its lawsuit against Vimeo, which it accused of wrongfully taking down anti-vaccination videos, according to an appellate decision Tuesday.

The evangelical Christian channel Daystar Television Network filed suit against the online platform in 2020 after Vimeo pulled down five of its videos, which claimed “that childhood vaccination leads to autism,” court documents show.

A lower court tossed Daystar’s suit, which claimed that Vimeo breached its contract by removing the videos — and the ruling was upheld by an appeals court Tuesday.

Federal law “prevents lawsuits against Internet service providers for their good-faith decisions to remove content that they consider objectionable,” according to the unanimous five-judge decision written by Justice Anil Singh.

Vimeo’s own policy also says it has the right to remove content that “makes false or misleading claims about vaccination safety,” the decision added.

Vimeo General Counsel Michael Cheah said in a statement to The Post, “We are pleased with today’s decision of the Appellate Division — it affirms Vimeo’s right, under Section 230, to ban and remove vaccine misinformation.

“We will continue to be diligent in removing content that spreads misinformation which can cause real-world harm.”

Daystar lawyer Michael Anderson said in a statement, “Daystar respectfully disagrees with the holding of the Court.

“Due to the importance of this issue and to preserve its rights, Daystar intends to appeal today’s decision.”

Vimeo is not the only platform to take a stance against anti-vaccination content. In September, YouTube announced it was banning content that suggests approved vaccines are ineffective or cause chronic health problems.