Quebec judge authorizes class actions over COVID-19 posts on Facebook, YouTube – Montreal Gazette

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They allege that content moderation policies on the social media platforms during the pandemic violated Quebecers' freedom of expression.

Published May 10, 2024 Last updated 3hours ago 3 minute read

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A Superior Court judge has authorized two class-action lawsuits alleging that Facebook and YouTubes content moderation policies during the COVID-19 pandemic violated Quebecers freedom of expression.

The suit against Meta Platforms, which owns Facebook, was brought by Christian Leray, an administrator of the Facebook group for an organization called Rinfo Qubec, which criticized COVID-19 public health measuresand who had posts deleted because the social media platform said they contained misinformation about vaccines.

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In his decision late last month, Justice Lukasz Granosik wrote that given the role Facebook plays in society, it has to take some responsibility for the control it exercises over the content that appears on its platform.

If Facebook carries out censorship, prevents certain people from posting certain information, sanctions them by restricting access to their account and thus hinders the free circulation of ideas, it exposes itself to having to defend its methods, he wrote. Its decision may be well-founded and it may not incur any liability, but the question has been raised and it is clear that the plaintiff has a chance of success on the merits.

In his decision allowing the suit against Google, which owns YouTube, Granosik came to an almost identical conclusion.

In that case, representative plaintiff lose Boies alleges that several videos which claimed that governments and large companies were censoring information about COVID-19 and questioned the efficacy and safety of COVID-19 vaccines were deleted because they violated the platforms policies.

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In his suit against Meta Platforms, Leray alleges that when his posts were deleted on Facebook, his account was suspended for periods ranging from 24 hours to a month, according to the decision.

Leray alleges that Facebook controls the content on its platform, even censoring it, by deleting posts, restricting the accessibility of certain messages by sanctioning their authors, classifying them in a particular way, or by sending or adding warnings, Granosik wrote. Facebook justifies all these measures, now and in the past by its policy of prohibiting disinformation that can cause physical damage or relates false information about COVID-19, or simply because this information was at odds with its community standards.'

Meta Platforms argued against allowing the suit to move forward on the grounds that Leray didnt have a case and that people whose posts were deleted didnt form the type of group that can launch a class action.

Meta argues that it didnt commit any violation of the Charter, because it has no obligation to provide a platform for the expression of any speech and that its platform is private and it can use it as it wishes, or according to its own rules and, finally, that the plaintiff can exercise his freedom of expression in other ways, the judge wrote.

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Google made similar arguments, according to the decision in that case.

The class actions include any Quebec resident whose content was deleted or who was unable to view content deleted by the platforms. They seek a total of $2,000 in damages for anyone who had a censored Facebook post or YouTube video and $1,000 for anyone who was unable to view that content.

William Desrochers, the lawyer representing the plaintiffs in both cases, said that while the companies policies were to delete content that could be harmful, it seems the way they applied it is that people are actually prevented from criticizing the government about COVID-19.

Facebook and YouTube have become the ideal public space if you want to spread a message to other citizens or people around you, he said, and that by opening themselves up to everyone and allowing people to express themselves, the platforms have limited their ability to control that content and determine what ideas are allowed.

While the platforms may have been justified in deleting some of the posts, he said they will have to demonstrate that their actions were reasonable.

Authorization is an early step that shows the case isnt frivolous, Desrochers said, adding that a trial is probably years away.

Google and Meta Platforms did not respond to requests for comment Friday.

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Quebec judge authorizes class actions over COVID-19 posts on Facebook, YouTube - Montreal Gazette