“Apple and a number of other tech companies are being sued by a watchdog organization over claims of content censorship, following after President Donald Trump publicly accused online services of bias against republican news outlets and other publications,” AppleInsider reports. “Filed on Wednesday by Freedom Watch in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia, the lawsuit targets Apple, Google, Facebook, and Twitter, as an attempted class action suit on behalf of ‘all politically conservative organizations’ and individuals who have ‘experienced illegal suppression and/or censorship of their media.'”
“The suit goes on to describe some of the ways the four tech firms are apparently suppressing content, including the demonetization of accounts on YouTube, President Trump’s recent claim of search result bias, an article about how Facebook’s news curators ‘routinely suppressed news stories of interest to conservative readers,’ and Twitter’s ‘shadowbanning’ of political content,” AppleInsider reports.
“The suit accuses the companies of violating sections 1 and 2 of the Sherman Act, and discrimination in violation of D.C. Code 2-1403.16 (DCHRA), the latter of which concerns discrimination based on 20 different traits of people living and working in the District of Columbia, in this case specifically ‘Political Affiliation.’ Lastly, the fourth cause of action is a violation of the First Amendment of the Constitution, in the belief social networks are public places and that this constitutes a failure to regulate the freedom of speech,” AppleInsider reports. “As a prayer for relief, the suit demands damages in excess of $1 billion, as well as injunctive relief. A trial by jury is also demanded.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: Freedom Watch’s press release dated August 30, 2018, verbatim:
Freedom Watch Files Class Action Complaint Against Google, Facebook, Twitter, Apple And Instagram For Alleged Antitrust Violations And Other Illegalities
Coordinated Discrimination by Media Giants Against Conservatives Alleged As a Sherman 1 Agreement in Restraint of TradeToday, Larry Klayman, founder of Judicial Watch and Freedom Watch and a former U.S. Department of Justice prosecutor who was on the trial team that broke up the AT&T monopoly during Reagan’s administration, announced filing a class action lawsuit which, among many counts, alleges social media giants Google/YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Apple and Instagram conspired by entering into an explicit or tacit agreement, in parallel to each other, to restrain trade in violation of Section 1 of the Sherman Act. See Freedom Watch v. Google/You Tube et. al (Civil Action Number 18-cv-2030, U.S. District Court for District of Columbia).
Complaint alleges intent and effect of this agreement in restraint of trade is to quash and/or limit advocacy by conservative and pro-Trump public interest groups, advocates and others to further leftist anti-conservative agendas of these social media giants and help bring down the Trump presidency, nullifying the vote for the president by millions of citizens. These alleged illegal and anticompetitive actions are an integral part of the so-called “resistance” to remove President Trump and install a leftist government over the 50 states.
This class action complaint can be found at www.freedomwatchusa.org.
The complaint is first of its kind in the wake of mounting proof that social media giants are illegally restricting free speech of conservatives, and promoting free speech from leftist sources such as CNN, MSNBC, the New York Times, the Washington Post and others:
“Our inert and compromised Attorney General Jeff Sessions is unwilling to take strong action through his Antitrust Division as he has become the darling of the left given his refusal to prosecute Hillary Clinton, John Brennan, James Clapper, James Comey, prominent Democrats and others who’ve allegedly committed crimes, while giving Robert Mueller carte blanche to proceed with his ‘witch hunt,'” said Klayman.
“Freedom Watch seeks to right this discrimination against conservatives by social media giants. Our complaint asks for injunctive relief and over a billion dollars in damages, including punitive damages, pales in comparison to what the Commission of the European Union has already levied against such social media giants as Google for alleged ruthless tactics in stifling competition.”
Source: Freedom Watch
SEE ALSO:
White House probes Google after President Trump accuses it of left-wing bias – August 29, 2018
President Trump attacks ‘left-wing’ Google search results – August 28, 2018
The Boston Globe Editorial Board: Break up Google – June 16, 2018
Bernstein: Google to pay Apple $3 billion this year to remain the default search engine on iPhones and iPads – August 14, 2017
James Damore: Why I was fired by Google – August 12, 2017
European Union hits Google with record $2.73 billion fine for abusing internet search monopoly – June 27, 2017
Google’s Eric Schmidt wore staff badge at Hillary Clinton’s ‘victory’ party – November 16, 2016
WikiLeaks emails show extremely close relationship between Clinton campaign and Google’s Eric Schmidt – November 1, 2016
Eric Schmidt-backed startup stealthily working to put Hillary Clinton in the White House – October 9, 2015
Obama to reward Google’s Schmidt with Cabinet post? – December 5, 2012
Google outfoxes U.S. FCC – April 17, 2012
Google Street View cars grabbed locations of cellphones, computers – July 26, 2011
Consumer Watchdog calls for probe of Google’s inappropriate relationship with Obama administration – January 25, 2011
FCC cites Android ‘openness’ as reason for neutered ‘Net Neutrality’ – December 22, 2010
U.S. FCC approves so-called ‘net-neutrality’ regulations – December 21, 2010
Wired: Google, CIA Invest in ‘future’ of Web monitoring – July 29, 2010
