ICAN, through its attorneys, has sued YouTube and Facebook for wrongfully and illegally
terminating ICAN’s YouTube channel and its Facebook page without warning – a direct infringement of ICAN’s right to freedom of
speech. ICAN calls out the social media platforms’ unconstitutional behavior and identifies the puppeteer as the U.S.
Government. The First Amendment of the United States Constitution prohibits government
officials from censoring speech they dislike or disagree with. This also means that the government, or a government official, cannot use a
private actor as a cat’s paw to censor speech they dislike or disagree with. Nevertheless, that is exactly what happened: government actors used
threats to YouTube and Facebook’s businesses to force them to censor ICAN’s speech via its Facebook page and YouTube channel.
And so ICAN sued the two social media giants. ICAN is committed to providing you with accurate information about health-related issues in order to allow you and all
citizens to make informed medical decisions. Since 2016, ICAN has done so through, among other things, posting episodes of our talk show,
“The HighWire with Del Bigtree,” which you all support, on a YouTube channel and on a Facebook page. Since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, ICAN has been dedicated to gathering and disseminating medical opinions by
scientists, doctors, and other industry professionals in order to shine a light on the different perspectives through which our followers can
understand the pandemic. As you know from prior legal updates, we have also submitted numerous FOIA requests for information regarding potential
vaccines and disseminated that information widely. At times, the information that ICAN disseminates contradicts the government orthodoxy or policy,
and that is how ICAN found itself a target in Congressman Adam Schiff’s war on disfavored speech. Schiff considered what he called
“vaccine misinformation” to be dangerous and so he decided to threaten YouTube and Facebook to limit speech from ICAN that, while not
illegal, he did not like. Despite ICAN having posted on these social media platforms for years, soon after Congressman Schiff
issued threatening letters to YouTube and Facebook about vaccine information, as you all know, YouTube terminated ICAN’s channel and shortly
thereafter, Facebook terminated ICAN’s The HighWire page. ICAN will not stand for any government actor or social media
platform attempting to stop American citizens from speaking their mind simply because they do not agree with what they are saying.
Schiff’s campaign against what he considers “vaccine misinformation” is clearly an attempt to restrict ICAN’s, and
therefore all Americans’, speech based on the content of that speech. Even though YouTube and Facebook’s behavior was a response to
government pressure, their actions cannot be condoned. To allow such actions to proceed will give government actors a powerful tool to limit speech on
the most popular form of media today. ICAN brought this action to defend itself against a governmental over-reach and it seeks
injunctive relief to remedy this behavior and put a stop to it for ICAN, its followers’, and everyone’s sake. You can read the
lawsuit here. |
