Not your father’s Kennedy:
Judge denies RFK Jr.’s request for restraining order against Google in censorship suit
The Democratic presidential candidate argued that his First Amendment rights were being violated.
“Plaintiff has not shown circumstances warranting the extraordinary remedy of a temporary restraining order,” Thompson said in her 11-page decision, issued following a hearing on Monday. “The Court finds that the First Amendment claim is unlikely to succeed on the merits because Google and YouTube are not state actors.”
RFK Jr. failed in court today when a President Biden judge (gasp!), U.S. District Judge Trina Thompson, said that the company violated his First Amendment rights is unlikely to succeed because Google is a private entity. Thompson also wrote that a restraining order was not necessary because he would not be irreparably harmed if the order was not granted.
Previously, Robert F. Kennedy Jr filed suit against Google, YouTube, for removing his reckless and dangerous anti-vax videos the company said were medical misinformation claims. The firm contends that the content violated YouTube’s policy against discussing the Covid-19 vaccines. Judge Thompson’ also suggested that if the popular video-hosting site were somehow subject to the First Amendment, Kennedy might still have no case because inaccurate information about medical issues lacks free speech protections.
“The coronavirus still poses a health risk to certain individuals, and it would not serve the public interest to let medical misinformation proliferate on YouTube,” the judge wrote, arguing that there is a “public interest of preventing the spread of illness and medical misinformation.”
