NEWS

Facebook considers independent ‘fact-checking’ label ‘protected opinion,’ court documents reveal

Updated: December 14, 2021 at 3:57 pm EST  See Comments

Tue Dec 14, 2021 – 2:15 pm EST

(American Thinker) – Surprisingly little attention is being paid to a bombshell admission made by attorneys representing the corporation formerly known as Facebook, Inc., which has now transitioned into Meta Platforms, Inc.

In a court filing responding to a lawsuit filed by John Stossel – claiming that he was defamed by a “fact check” which Facebook used to label a video by him as “misleading” – Meta’s attorneys assert that the “fact check” was an “opinion,” not an actual check of facts and declaration of facts. Under libel law, opinions are protected from liability for libel.

Anthony Watts of Wattsupwiththat explains:

Opinions are not subject to defamation claims, while false assertions of fact can be subject to defamation. The quote in Facebook’s complaint is,

Meta’s attorneys come from the white shoe law firm Wilmer Cutler Pickering Hale and Dore, with over a thousand attorneys and more than a billion dollars a year in revenue. They obviously checked out the implications of the matter for Section 230 issues, the legal protection Facebook/Meta have from liability for what is posted on their site.

But at a minimum, this is a public relations disaster, revealing that their “fact checks” are

The remainder of this article is available in its entirety at LifeSite News

The views expressed in this news alert by the author do not directly represent that of The Official Street Preachers or its editors

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