Subscribe

    Please enter your email address to receive Freedom Watch updates on the suggested topics below. You can change or cancel your subscription at any time.


      Press releases by Freedom Watch
      Daily tweets by Larry Klayman
      Videos from Freedom Watch TV
      Special Prosecutor with Larry Klayman weekly podcast
      Weekly columns by Larry Klayman
      Other updates

      What's Hot

      FAUCI CONVICTED OF FELONIES INCLUDING NEGLIGENT HOMICIDE RESULTING IN DEATHS OF MILLIONS

      September 21, 2023

      ATTORNEY GENERAL GARLAND AND FBI DIRECTOR WRAY SUED BY J-6 PEACEFUL PROTESTERS OVER ILLEGAL SURVEILLANCE

      September 20, 2023

      Join and Support Freedom Watch’s Media Strike Force!

      September 19, 2023
      Freedom WatchFreedom Watch
      Donate
      • Home
      • About Us
      • Blog
      • Cases
      • Store
      • Contact
      Freedom WatchFreedom Watch
      Home»Uncategorized»Klayman: Google and Tech Companies Will Lose Class Action for Antitrust Violations Harming Conservatives! Go to Our Website at www.FreedomWatchUSA.org to View Complaint
      Uncategorized

      Klayman: Google and Tech Companies Will Lose Class Action for Antitrust Violations Harming Conservatives! Go to Our Website at www.FreedomWatchUSA.org to View Complaint

      Freedom WatchBy Freedom WatchNovember 20, 2018


      Tech Giants Want Conservatives’ $1B Censorship Suit Tossed

       

      By Matthew Perlman

      Law 360

      November 20, 2018

       

      Law360 (November 19, 2018, 6:14 PM EST) — Google, Facebook, Twitter and Apple urged a D.C. federal court on Friday to toss a suit from a nonprofit alleging the technology giants violated the First Amendment and antitrust statutes by censoring conservative content, arguing the group can’t show it was censored.

      The companies filed a motion to dismiss the August suit lodged by Freedom Watch Inc., an interest group headlined and represented by estranged Judicial Watch founder and conservative legal provocateur Larry Klayman.

      The motion argues that Freedom Watch’s complaint does little more than restate opinion pieces and articles that claim the companies conspire to suppress conservative voices on their search and social media platforms, and that the suit contains no allegations the group itself was actually targeted.

      “Missing from the complaint is any allegation that defendants have actually censored or otherwise taken adverse action against Freedom Watch’s own content,” the motion said. “Plaintiff does not allege, for example, that any of the defendants has removed from their platforms any posting made by Freedom Watch or that any defendant has terminated or suspended Freedom Watch’s account.”

      The only alleged injury Freedom Watch suffered, the motion said, was that its growth on the tech platforms has dried up, which the companies argued cannot be connected to the purported suppression of politically conservative content.

      Even if the group could establish standing, which it can’t, the motion argued, the allegation that the censorship violated its First Amendment right should be dismissed, because only the government is barred from abridging the freedom of speech.

      “Private businesses like the defendants do not become state actors merely because they are open to the public or because they provide a place for speech on the Internet,” the motion said.

      Freedom Watch’s lawsuit came on the heels of a Twitter tirade from President Donald Trump in late August, when he cited a study from conservative media outlet PJ Media claiming 96 percent of Google search results for the query “Trump news” come from “national left-wing media.”

      Freedom Watch said it had been working on the lawsuit beforehand, though acknowledged Trump’s statements had “brought everything to a crescendo.”

      After Trump’s search result tweets, Google released a statement to multiple news outlets denying that it ranks search results based on political sentiment.

      Freedom Watch’s lawsuit relies on the PJ Media study and other articles from conservative sources like the National Review and The Western Journal to claim Google, Facebook and the other tech companies aim to “use their position of influence and great market power … to recraft the nation into their leftist design.”

      As an example, the organization cited Google’s decision in August to delete a YouTube channel belonging to Alex Jones of InfoWars, which the suit said had “more than 2 million subscribers and many years’ worth of content.” Apple also removed InfoWars podcasts from its platform.

      The companies told the court in October they planned to respond to the suit collectively, and filed a motion to dismiss on Friday. In addition to attacking Freedom Watch’s First Amendment claim, and claims under the D.C. Human Rights Act, the motion attacked the group’s claim under Section 1 of the Sherman Act, arguing the complaint includes no allegations the companies actually conspired.

      The group’s Section 2 claim, which argues that the companies collectively monopolized the market for media and news publications, also fails, the motion argued, because “there is no cognizable claim for collective monopolization.”

      “Such a claim has consistently and repeatedly been rejected by the courts,” the motion said. “Monopolization under Section 2 requires monopoly by a single firm.”

      In addition, the companies argued, all of Freedom Watch’s claims are barred by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which they said provides statutory immunity for any claims arising out of their “traditional editorial functions — such as deciding whether to publish, withdraw, postpone or alter content.”

      “Courts routinely apply Section 230 to dismiss claims stemming from service providers’ decisions to post, edit, or remove third-party content,” the motion said, citing several cases including an action brought by Klayman against Facebook that was initially dismissed in 2011. “This court should do the same.”

      Attorneys for Freedom Watch and the tech companies did not immediately respond to requests for comment Monday.

      Facebook is represented by Craig S. Primis and K. Winn Allen of Kirkland & Ellis LLP; Twitter is represented by Jonathan M. Jacobson and Brian M. Willen of Wilson Sonsini Goodrich & Rosati; Google is represented by John E. Schmidtlein, Kannon K. Shanmugam and Thomas G. Hentoff of Williams & Connolly LLP; Apple is represented by Michael J. Gottlieb, William A. Isaacson and James A. Kraehenbuehl of Boies Schiller & Flexner LLP.

      Freedom Watch is represented by its chairman and general counsel Larry Klayman.

      The case is Freedom Watch Inc. v. Google Inc. et al., case number 1:18-cv-02030, in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia.

      –Additional reporting by RJ Vogt and Bryan Koenig. Editing by Amy Rowe.



      tweet
      Freedom Watch
      • Website

      Related Posts

      Klayman: Outrageous!

      February 10, 2023

      Bursting Biden’s Balloon Before Nation Goes Under! Order “It Takes a Counter-Revolution!” at Amazon.com

      February 10, 2023

      Klayman: Biden Obviously Delayed Shooting Down Spy Balloon Allowing ChiComs to Conduct Surveillance on U.S. Nuclear Missile Sites to Pay Back ChiComs for the Millions in Dollars of Bribes He Took Laundered Through His Son Hunter!

      February 9, 2023

      Comments are closed.

      Book

      Get your copy of Klayman’s It Takes a Revolution and It Takes a Counter-Revolution

      February 25, 2023
      Top Posts

      FAUCI CONVICTED OF FELONIES INCLUDING NEGLIGENT HOMICIDE RESULTING IN DEATHS OF MILLIONS

      September 21, 2023

      ATTORNEY GENERAL GARLAND AND FBI DIRECTOR WRAY SUED BY J-6 PEACEFUL PROTESTERS OVER ILLEGAL SURVEILLANCE

      September 20, 2023

      SENTENCING OF JOE, HUNTER AND JAMES BIDEN

      September 8, 2023

      SENTENCING OF JOE, HUNTER AND JAMES BIDEN MOVED DUE TO NEWLY DISCLOSED EVIDENCE OF CRIMINALITY

      August 17, 2023
      Don't Miss
      Crime Fighting

      FAUCI CONVICTED OF FELONIES INCLUDING NEGLIGENT HOMICIDE RESULTING IN DEATHS OF MILLIONS

      By Freedom WatchSeptember 21, 2023

      Sentencing to Occur on Tuesday, October 3, 2023 Life Imprisonment Sought View at www.freedomwatchusa.org and Freedom Watch…

      ATTORNEY GENERAL GARLAND AND FBI DIRECTOR WRAY SUED BY J-6 PEACEFUL PROTESTERS OVER ILLEGAL SURVEILLANCE

      September 20, 2023

      Join and Support Freedom Watch’s Media Strike Force!

      September 19, 2023

      SENTENCING OF JOE, HUNTER AND JAMES BIDEN

      September 8, 2023

      Subscribe

      Please enter your email address to receive Freedom Watch updates on the suggested topics below. You can change or cancel your subscription at any time.


        Press releases by Freedom Watch
        Daily tweets by Larry Klayman
        Videos from Freedom Watch TV
        Special Prosecutor with Larry Klayman weekly podcast
        Weekly columns by Larry Klayman
        Other updates

        Book

        WHORES: Why and How I Came to Fight the Establishment

        February 25, 2023
        About Us
        About Us

        Freedom Watch, Inc., is a 501(c)(3) public interest group that promotes ethics in government and the legal system through educational endeavors and peaceful and legal actions to expose and prosecute domestic and foreign government and legal corruption as it affects the citizenry of the United States.

        Contact

        Freedom Watch, Inc.
        7050 W Palmetto Park Rd.
        Suite 15-264
        Boca Raton, FL 33433

        leklayman@yahoo.com
        daj142182@gmail.com

        202-609-7336

        Subscribe

        Please enter your email address to receive Freedom Watch updates on the suggested topics below. You can change or cancel your subscription at any time.


          Press releases by Freedom Watch
          Daily tweets by Larry Klayman
          Videos from Freedom Watch TV
          Special Prosecutor with Larry Klayman weekly podcast
          Weekly columns by Larry Klayman
          Other updates

          • Home
          • About Us
          • Blog
          • Cases
          • Store
          • Contact
          • Donate
          © 2023 Freedom Watch, Inc.

          Type above and press Enter to search. Press Esc to cancel.