Steven Crowder announced this morning that he will be suing Facebook for false advertising and unfair competition and asking for, among other things, seven figures in monetary damages:
For immediate release => Louder with Crowder is Suing Facebook https://t.co/QtdZDDb6z6
— Steven Crowder (@scrowder) February 1, 2021
Here’s more from his website:
The suit will be filed and publicly available this week. It will be filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California.
The causes of action under state law include unfair competition and false advertising.
The key remedy is injunctive relief (stop unfair/deceptive acts). We’re also seeking seven-figure monetary damages. The goal here is forcing honesty and clarity in policy application and enforcement.
Our broader point is that we are pro-business but anti-fraud. Facebook lured consumers and creators to spend money and provide data and views under the promise of not engaging in political, racial or religious bias in enforcing their policies, but they have done so both expressly and secretively, and hence, the suit.
We want Facebook to stop these practices or to be honest about what it is they’re doing. Simply stated, is Facebook a publisher or a platform? They need to be open about what they are and act accordingly.
There is a double standard here. What are the actual standards by which Facebook says we, its users, govern ourselves? Facebook needs to disclose what they’re doing as a business, especially as they solicit money for advertising.
We need Facebook to stop throttling pages and content and to stop favoring certain outlets over others. In a word, stop acting like a publisher or just admit that they are one. We’re prepared to take the lawsuit as far as we need to, including to the United States Supreme Court.
I hope Crowder beats the pants off Mark Zuckerberg. I think it’s patently unfair for Facebook to charge companies like Crowder a lot of money in advertising to increase page likes and thus increase their reach, just to turn around and take that ‘reach’ back from them under the ruse of a ‘terms of service’ breach. It’s ridiculous and it has to stop.