A Satanic Temple in Washington state recently failed to persuade a federal court to reconsider its prior decision dismissing its claims against two rogue members who hijacked the temple’s social media accounts.
The court opted not to involve itself in the temple’s business.
Two members of the temple who were approved administrators of the temple’s social media accounts took control of the accounts and blocked the temple’s access. On one of the temple’s Facebook accounts, the rogue members changed the page’s name and issued a manifesto announcing that the page was no longer affiliated with the satanic temple because the temple had supported “ableism, misogyny, and racism,” transphobia, and police brutality.
On one of the temple’s other Facebook pages, according to the temple, one of the rogue employees “levie[d] false claims that [The Satanic Temple] leadership is cozy with the alt-right, are white supremacists, [and] are generally insufficiently leftist.” Claiming the charges were false, the temple filed a federal lawsuit that included a claim for defamation.
According to the temple, its mission is to “encourage benevolence and empathy among all people, reject tyrannical authority, advocate practical common sense and justice, and be directed by the human conscience to undertake noble pursuits guided by the individual will.” The claims made by the rogue members contradicted the stated mission.
In any defamation suit, the plaintiff must establish that the alleged defamation...
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