On Monday (3 Oct)The Supreme Court announced it would not hear a challenge brought by conservative commentator Candace Owens on her complaints against “fact checkers” on Facebook and her opinion about the COVID-19 death count.
She uses Facebook as a platform for her career, as a political commentator. She sued Lead Stories and USA Today, which work with Facebook as fact-checkers” and have the ability to cancel or suspend certain pages and posts.
Ms.Owens’ posts as “false” and a “hoax” when she commented on the government’s COVID-19 death count, suggesting the deaths were uncountable because of the tabulation methods she criticized.
She had claimed the fact that the checkers interfered with her business and ran afoul of her free-speech rights for suppressing her posts.
In short “ Ms. Owen’s comments were very thoughtful, researched, social, political, public, and controversial. They lie at the very heart of the protections of the First Amendment, addressing perhaps the most important public issue at the time,” her lawyers argued in court papers.
Without any comments, the high court declined to take up her case. It would have taken four justices to vote in favor of hearing the matter.
“ The whole USA appreciates the Supreme Court’s refusal to disturb the rulings by the Delaware courts recognizing that the First Amendment’s protection for news reporting on matters of public importance cannot be circumvented by asserting claims sounding in tortious interference with business relations and unfair competition,” attorney Mike Grygiel said.