Robert F. Kennedy Jr heads anti-vaccine group suing Facebook

An anti-vaxxer group led by the nephew of an assassinated US president thinks there’s a conspiracy against its “false” messages – and blames Facebook.

An anti-vaccine group led by Robert F. Kennedy Jr is suing Facebook, accusing it of censorship for rejecting anti-vax ads and labelling claims about 5G technology and vaccines with misinformation warnings.

The group, which tries to insulate itself from the poor optics of opposing vaccinations by dubbing itself the Children’s Health Defence (CHD) is suing Mark Zuckerberg, the Facebook company he founded, and some of the organisations it uses to outsource the job of verifying whether claims made on its platform are true or not, among others.

The lawsuit was filed in California on Monday.

“This is a case about how an officer and an agency within the US Government “privatised” the First Amendment by teaming up with Facebook to censor speech which, under the Bill of Rights, the Government cannot censor,” the lawsuit boldly claims.

Robert F. Kennedy Jr, the nephew of assassinated US president John F. Kennedy and an environmental lawyer turned vocal anti-vaxxer, is named as a plaintiff.

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Robert F. Kennedy’s ‘explanation’ in one video was flagged as false information.

One of his Instagram posts was hit with a fact-check well.

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A study published in the journal Vaccine and seen by Ars Technica found that the majority of anti-vaccine advertising on Facebook was purchased by a small number of organisations and that Mr Kennedy was the single leading source for the ads, before they were banned.

The lawsuit goes on to allege the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention conspired with the World Health Organisation and Facebook “to suppress vaccine safety speech with a ‘warning label’ and other notices that appear to flag disinformation, but in reality censor valid and truthful speech”.

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The lawsuit and the CHD’s post alleged a conspiracy between the CDC and WHO.

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The First Amendment of the US Constitution relates to the restriction of free speech by the government (not private companies like Facebook), but no government entities have been named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

The lawsuit also accuses Mr Zuckerberg and Facebook of conducting a RICO fraud.

RICO cases (under the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations Act) were originally introduced to target mob bosses in the 1970s and are designed so authorities can prosecute the alleged leaders of criminal organisations for the actions of others within the organisation.

Facebook is far from perfect but the plaintiffs are likely to face a serious challenge getting a court to recognise the company as a criminal organisation.

Fact-checkers took issue with a claim that ‘unvaccinated kids are healthier’.

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The lawsuit also implies the social media and advertising giant is guilty of “material misrepresentation and blatant falsehood”, motivated to place warning labels on CHD content because the company sells ads for pharmaceutical companies, is a “purveyor of global 5G and wireless networks and services” (Facebook is a tech-based company that relies on the internet), and is a “developer of vaccines”.

“Facebook’s warning label concerning CHD is false on its face and by clear implication,” the lawsuit argues.

“Defendants knew that their warning label was untrue and perpetuated it to divert users from CHD’s Facebook page to the CDC’s website.

“This was one of the tactics in defendants’ RICO fraud enterprise to damage CHD financially and marginalise CHD’s health advocacy work, and unjustly enrich themselves through their continued receipt of billions of dollars in pharmaceutical advertising revenue, and billions more in future vaccine and 5G network-related profits,” the lawsuit alleges.

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A report ‘loaded with charts’ was flagged as containing ‘partly false information’.

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Central to the argument about vaccine development is the work of the Chan Zuckerberg Initiative (CZI), founded by Mr Zuckerberg and his wife Priscilla Chan.

One of the goals of that organisation is to “prevent, manage or cure all diseases by the end of this century”.

“We’re seeking new approaches to overcoming challenges that have stymied vaccine development for diseases like HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis,” CZI Biohub said on its website.

CZI is separate from Facebook and not named as a defendant in the lawsuit.

A ‘renowned physician’ and her dissent against ‘widely accepted vaccine policy’ attracted a false information warning.

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CHD is seeking more than $US5 million ($A6.9 million) in damages.

Several conservative politicians and activists in the US have previously filed lawsuits against social media companies, accusing them of displaying political biases – which happen to go against their own political views, clouding their claims the platforms are biased one way or the other.

None have so far been successful.

Democratic presidential candidate Tulsi Gabbard also took action against Google, accusing it of hurting her chances of clinching the nomination by briefly suspending her advertising account, though that action was similarly unsuccessful.

The CHD case might have a low chance of success but does add to the ongoing pursuit of regulation and restrictions on the actions of big tech companies and social media platforms (Facebook is lucky enough to be both).