Robert F. Kennedy Jr. and a PAC supporting him for president are suing Meta after the firm's giant social-media platforms, Facebook and Instagram, allegedly censored a 30-minute documentary about the independent candidate.
The lawsuit, filed Monday, claims that Meta violated Kennedy's First Amendment rights and engaged in election interference, first by removing the movie entirely, then by maliciously hiding it from would-be viewers in a fashion typically referred to as "shadow-banning."
"I have no doubt this case will set a precedent as Americans increasingly rely on social media to form their opinions and values," said attorney Rick Jaffe, who is representing Kennedy.
The lawsuit includes several photographic examples of its assertions by using Meta's responses to users who tried to view or share the movie Who is Bobby Kennedy?
"It looked like you tried to get likes, follows, shares or video views in a misleading way," is one example of the censorship by Meta, according to the suit. Others pointed to community standards and technical issues.
Meta acknowledged that the film was removed from its platforms but didn't respond to Newsweek's question about "shadow-banning."
"The link was mistakenly blocked and was quickly restored once the issue was discovered," a Meta spokesman said.
"When you do something repeatedly towards a particular candidate, it is disingenuous to claim it was an accident," Tony Lyons of AV24 told Newsweek.
The lawsuit outlines other examples of alleged censorship and election interference that allegedly began shortly after Joe Biden was elected president.
Two days after Biden was sworn in, for example, "The White House flagged an anti-vaccine tweet by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. ('RFK Jr.') and instructed Twitter to 'get moving on the process for having it removed ASAP,'" the lawsuit claims.
"Kennedy is only one of innumerable Americans whom the country's behemoth social media platforms censored in collusion and partnership with the White House and other government entities and officials, in what the District Court called 'arguably the most massive attack against free speech in United States history,'" says the lawsuit, citing Missouri v. Biden.
"If supporters of all candidates do not have equal access to the digital public square then we have a democracy in name only," Kennedy said.
The film, narrated by actor Woody Harrelson, begins with the candidate reading disparaging lines from media outlets. Then Kennedy jokes, "I wouldn't vote for that guy either."
The Kennedy campaign said the movie was released online nine days ago and viewed more than 6 million times in two days. Elon Musk boosted it with a post on his X platform along with the text, "Worth watching," sending viewership on X into the tens of millions.
The first half of the film mostly focuses on Kennedy, an environmental attorney, successfully prosecuting lawsuits against major polluters before delving into the more controversial issue of vaccine injuries.
"There's only two entities in America who are immune from litigation, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and pharmaceutical companies in their production of vaccines," Harrelson says in the film.
Harrelson's reference is to the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program, created in 1986 as a no-fault system of litigation for the purpose of shielding vaccine manufacturers from liability after Congress deemed there were "unavoidable adverse side effects" to even safe and effective vaccines.
Vaccines, in fact, are mentioned in the lawsuit more than a dozen times.
On some users' Facebook pages, when they tried to watch Who Is Bobby Kennedy?, a still shot from the film was displayed along with a message saying that the film was "blocked," the lawsuit says.
In those circumstances, a "COVID overlay was inserted into the still shot saying 'COVID-19 vaccine' and directing users to get information from other recommended sources, such as the federal Centers for Disease Control," according to the lawsuit.
The CDC, the lawsuit says, is "an agency that has been integral to the Administration's online censorship campaign directed at COVID- and vaccine-related content."
Toward the end of the movie, Kennedy says: "If you read and listen to what I've actually said and, on election day, if you think I'm crazy, or any of the other disqualifying things they've said about me, please don't vote for me."
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