A TV journalist’s lawsuit alleging he was defamed by Facebook fact-checking labels was dismissed this week by a federal judge in San Jose.
John Stossel objected to labels on two videos he posted on Facebook, including one in which he said “bad policies,” rather than climate change, were the biggest cause of California’s devastating wildfires of 2020.
A small label that Facebook placed at the top of the video frame had the text “Missing Context: Independent fact-checkers say the information could mislead people.” A button below labeled “see why” took readers to more information, including a page on the website of fact-checker Science Feedback about wildfires and climate change.
In granting the dismissal request by Facebook parent company Meta, U.S. District Judge Virginia DeMarchi cited two reasons:
First, the judgment of the fact-checkers is subjective and therefore not an “actionable statement” in relation to a defamation claim.
Second, such fact-checking activity is protected by California’s anti-SLAPP statute, which allows for the dismissal of meritless suits aimed at preventing free speech on a matter of public interest.
Stossel, 75, is best-known for his long tenure on ABC’s “20/20” news show. He left for the Fox Business Network in 2009 and since 2019 has run his own online channel, Stossel TV, which takes a libertarian view of news and political issues.
Besides the wildfire video, Facebook placed a fact-checking label on a 2021 video report in which Stossel questioned claims by people he referred to as “environmental alarmists.” It was deemed “partly false,” and clicking for more information brought the reader to a Science Feedback article that said Stossel had relied on “incorrect and misleading claims about climate change.”
Science Feedback, a French non-profit, is one of the third-party organizations that Facebook partners with to reduce misinformation on its platforms.
Stossel’s defamation suit said that the fact-checking labels on the two videos caused “reduced distribution of his reporting, reduced viewership, and reduced profits from advertising revenue.”
Source: www.mercurynews.com