The U.S. Supreme Court today denied Children’s Health Defense’s (CHD) petition to hear its censorship case against Meta, the parent company of Facebook.
CHD sued Meta in August 2020 and filed an amended complaint in November 2020, alleging that government actors partnered with Facebook to censor CHD’s speech — particularly speech related to vaccines and COVID-19 — that should have been protected under the First Amendment.
The company deplatformed CHD from Facebook and Instagram in August 2022 and has not reinstated the accounts.
The 9th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals in August 2024 sided with Facebook, ruling that Meta’s censorship was the result of the company’s policy rather than government coercion.
On Jan. 6, CHD petitioned the Supreme Court to hear the case. Less than 24 hours later, Meta Founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg announced the company was ending its third-party “fact-checking” program — a program it had used to censor and later deplatform CHD and others.
