Legal action has been taken against Big Tech and Legacy Media for excluded rival publishers from dominant internet platforms

BY SIMONE J. SMITH

Last Tuesday, a first-of-its-kind antitrust action was filed against the: British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), The Washington Post, Reuters and Associated Press. Robert Kennedy Jr. joins medical professionals, independent journalists and media outlets to address collusion among behemoth media conglomerates. They are seeking damages totalling millions of dollars based on the collusive censorship of online health and political news publishers who dared to question the narrative relating to the COVID-19 pandemic and vaccine mandates.

This of course is an extremely important topic for the Toronto Caribbean Newspaper, as the organization had to deal with censorship on an aggressive nature: our systems were disrupted, journalists, social media platforms were silenced, or hacked, and during many of our live broadcasts, our viewers were unable to see our content due to network disruptions.

The lawsuit reveals that in March 2020, a partnership was created called the Trusted News Initiative (TNI) between Big Tech and Legacy Media. It excluded rival publishers from the dominant Internet platforms. On December 10^th, 2020, TNI agreed that they would focus on combating what they viewed as the spread of harmful vaccine disinformation. This coordinated effort is, by definition, a classic unlawful “group boycott” to damage the ability of smaller publishers to compete or even survive.

Who are the core members of the TNI? Well as noted above they include Legacy Media outlets: BBC, The Washington Post, Reuters and Associated Press, along with social media and tech giants—Twitter, Meta (Facebook/Instagram), Microsoft/LinkedIn and Google/YouTube. The TNI members collectively hold: 90% of the overall social media market, an 85% market share of the online social media news market, a 90% share of the social networking market, 75% of the video hosting market, and over 90% of the search-engine market. Yep, they have a huge influence on the content that is being viewed by people all around the world.

By their own admission, members of the ‘Trusted News Initiative’ (‘TNI’) agreed to work together and have successfully excluded from the world’s dominant internet platforms rival news publishers who challenge TNI members’ reporting on certain issues relating to COVID-19 and world politics.

What did the TNI members deem as misinformation? That is a great question. Let’s take a look at a few of the topics:

• Claims that COVID originated in a laboratory in Wuhan, China
• Claims that the COVID vaccines do not prevent infection
• Claims that vaccinated persons can transmit COVID to others
• Claims that compromising emails and videos were found on a laptop belonging to Hunter Biden

The TNI did not only prevent Internet users from making these claims; what they did was shut down online news publishers who simply reported that such claims were being made by potentially credible sources, such as scientists and physicians.

Important legal precedent is clear on the issues addressed in the antitrust lawsuit. As the Supreme Court stated in Associated Press v. United States, 326 U.S. 1, 20 (1945),  “Freedom to publish means freedom for all and not for some. Freedom to publish is guaranteed by the Constitution, but freedom to combine to keep others from publishing is not. Freedom of the press from governmental interference under the First Amendment does not sanction repression of that freedom by private interests.”

Plaintiffs: Dr. Ben Tapper, Dr. Joseph Mercola, independent news publisher and founder of The Gateway Pundit Jim Hoft, independent journalists Ben Swann and Erin Elizabeth Finn, independent news outlets TrialSite News and Creative Destruction Media and health-freedom activists Ty and Charlene Bollinger join Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Children’s Health Defense (CHD).

“My uncle, President Kennedy, and my father, the Attorney General, sought to prosecute antitrust laws that are still on the nation’s books with vigour,” said Kennedy. “As private enforcers of those laws, we are confident that the Federal Court in Texas will vindicate our bedrock freedom to compete with legacy media in the marketplace of ideas.”

Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. and Children’s Health Defense have long questioned the safety and efficacy of vaccines, more recently fighting: COVID-19 vaccinations, U.S. government mandates and other pandemic response actions.

 “These are the twin evils of our day,” added Dr. Joseph Mercola, a plaintiff in the case. “Platforms partner with the alphabet soup of federal agencies to censor speech. Those same platforms and legacy media outlets conspire to boycott stories that don’t fit an official narrative about COVID and many other topics. Our nation’s founding fathers would be appalled and resolute in defence of maintaining an informed citizenry.” 

What do you think community? Is it fair that only certain media companies should have the right to report on important global topics? If so, how do we hold these organizations accountable when they are funded by other organizations that have an agenda? Please leave your comments, and let’s find ways to discuss this topic critically.