Right-Wing YouTubers Sue Over Conspiracy Theory Content Purge Ahead of 2020 Election | The Recorder
The litigation is the latest to hit Big Tech as some consumers apply more pressure to moderate misinformation and hate speech on social media in the runup to the election, while others call for an end to internet companies’ protections under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
Several YouTube creators are suing the platform and parent company Google after it banned certain QAnon and other far-right conspiracy theory content three weeks ahead of the 2020 presidential election.
The litigation is the latest to hit Big Tech as some consumers apply more pressure to moderate misinformation and hate speech on social media in the run-up to the election, while others call for an end to internet companies’ protections under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
The suit, filed Monday by M. Cris Armenta of Armenta & Sol in San Diego and surfaced by Legal Radar, claims YouTube breached the creators’ contracts and violated their constitutional rights and seeks a temporary restraining order to restore the account holders’ YouTube channels.
The complaint asserts that YouTube took the “draconian” action of deleting the videos to assuage lawmakers.
“Why did YouTube do this? To frustrate the contracts and to mollify its partner, Congress, which just days before had passed H.R. 1154, a resolution condemning the existence of conservative content—which it characterized as conspiracy theories—on the Internet,” the complaint states.
That nonbinding bipartisan resolution was approved by the House 371-18 on Oct. 2. The resolution criticized QAnon and other groups for spreading lies and for promoting anti-Semitic viewpoints. The resolution also condemned far-left groups, and condemned all acts of destruction of property and violence against police.
Several of the identified named plaintiffs have been linked to QAnon in various media reports. QAnon is a loosely affiliated group that frequently espouses unsubstantiated right-wing conspiracy theories.
In addition to First Amendment violations, the lawsuit filed Monday asserts that YouTube breached its terms of service with the content creators by taking down the videos without notice.
“In this action, Plaintiffs seek immediate and emergency relief from Defendants’ breaches of their contract with Plaintiffs, which have worked to completely deny Plaintiffs the benefits of the contracts and services for which they bargained, to obliterate Plaintiffs’ livelihoods, and to deprive both Plaintiffs and their subscribers of their First Amendment rights,” Armenta wrote. “Given that the Presidential election is approaching on November 3 and that Plaintiffs routinely provide news, commentary and information about issues that are directly relevant to that election, Plaintiffs seek immediate and emergency relief by way of a Temporary Restraining Order and/or Injunction to avoid irreparable harm that cannot be cured or later resolved through monetary damages alone.”
In the last few years, YouTube has faced lawsuits over its content moderation from both sides of the political spectrum. In separate lawsuits, bicoastal litigation boutique Browne George Ross argued that YouTube discriminated against its clients Prager University, a conservative nonprofit media company, and LGBTQ news channel GlitterBombTV.com.
