Siding with Facebook, a federal appellate court has refused to revive a lawsuit by Cameron Atkinson, who claimed his First Amendment rights were violated when Facebook “censored” some of his posts.
“Unless certain exceptions apply, the First Amendment only restricts government action,” 9th Circuit Court of Appeals Judges Sidney Runyan Thomas and Margaret McKeown and Montana District Court Judge Donald Molloy wrote in an opinion issued Monday.
The judges added that Atkinson's complaint didn't include the kinds of allegations that, if true, would support the conclusion that Facebook was “government actor” when it suppressed his posts.
“The district court properly dismissed Atkinson’s First Amendment claim because he did not allege sufficient facts to infer that Meta Platforms is a government actor,” the judges wrote, referring to Facebook by its new name.
The dispute began two years ago, when Atkinson, then a law student at Quinnipiac University, sued the social media company for taking down posts that contained the name of the suspected Ukraine whistleblower whose allegations resulted in the first impeachment of former president Donald Trump.
Atkinson alleged that he was “censored” by Facebook because the company was trying to “pander to and placate its critics.”
“Facebook has elected to apply its vague 'community standards' policies in a politically-motivated, ideologically-driven way, silencing both right-wing and left-wing speech that threatens to disrupt the carefully...
KUALA LUMPUR: Two senior officers from the Survey and Mapping Malaysia Department (Jupem) are expected to be charged over allegations of abuse of power next week, says Tan Sri Azam Baki. The duo we...