Former Kentucky attorney sues Facebook, claims ‘WOKE, liberal’ company suppressed him
A former Kentucky lawyer has filed a lawsuit against Facebook, alleging it committed fraud by suppressing his posts because he has conservative viewpoints.
Eric Deters, who was a lawyer in Ohio and Northern Kentucky and is an avid supporter of former President Donald Trump, filed his lawsuit against Facebook after he allegedly discovered his posts weren’t being properly displayed to other people. He said his posts were targeted even if he paid Facebook to “boost” the posts, according to court records.
He alleges his posts were targeted because “Facebook content-moderators target Trump supporters and conservatives even when the Facebook user’s posts/activities are compliant with Facebook rules.” Deters filed his lawsuit last month, but the case was moved to federal court earlier this week, according to court records.
“Facebook’s so-called ‘community standards’ are NOT community standards,” Deters wrote in his lawsuit. “They are WOKE, liberal progressive standards that are NOT consistent with the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky tristate community.”
Deters permanently retired from practicing law in Ohio after his license to practice law in Kentucky was suspended, according to the Kentucky Bar Association and the Ohio Supreme Court. The Kentucky Supreme Court denied his request for reinstatement earlier this year, stating that he seems unwilling to follow the rules of being a lawyer.
“As we understand Deters’ concept of the practice of law, no rules of professional responsibility, no statute, no case law bind him. Deters’ practice of law is not governed by constitution, rule of law or procedure. It is anarchy,” the state supreme court wrote in its order denying his reinstatement.
Deters is representing himself in the lawsuit, according to court records.
Facebook hasn’t yet filed a legal reply to Deters’ lawsuit.
The lawsuit comes at a time when Facebook is facing criticism from people who believe the social media platform isn’t doing enough to moderate content on its website. A former company employee said this week that Facebook was only stopping a small amount of hate speech and misinformation from getting out onto its website.
Hate speech and misinformation were areas of major concern for social media companies before, during and after the 2020 Presidential election as political extremists made baseless accusations about the validity of the election.
“Facebook’s products harm children, stoke division, and weaken our democracy,” the former company employee, Frances Haugen, said in testimony before a Senate subcommittee Tuesday according to CNN.
But Deters alleges that Facebook has put him in “Facebook jail” multiple times, according to court records. Facebook jail refers to account suspensions that keep users from accessing their accounts or creating new posts. Deters said in the lawsuit he never posted “anything crude, violent, sexual or offensive to any average member of the community.”
Deters said he decided to use Facebook to promote his business — he’s still tied to the firm bearing his name and a political “show” on YouTube — because the social media platform is marketed as a great advertising tool with billions of users. He’s described in the lawsuit as a “business owner, influencer, motivational speaker and advocate.”
He paid to “boost” some of his posts to reach a wider audience, and he employed a social media team to help with online promotion.
Deters said his posts were “unlawfully targeted by Facebook for supporting former President Trump and having conservative themes and messaging.”
He alleged Facebook “conspires with (the) current Biden administration to flag and remove content the administration finds problematic.” He also accused Facebook of manipulating content on its website to promote liberal viewpoints.
Studies haven’t found evidence of that. New York University analyzed the frequently-made claim that social media companies censor conservatives and found that conservative voices “often are dominant in online political debates.”
Steven Johnson, an information technology professor at the University of Virginia McIntire School of Commerce, told USA Today, “I know of no academic research that concludes there is a systemic bias — liberal or conservative — in either the content moderation policies or in the prioritization of content by algorithms by major social media platforms.”
A Facebook executive told Politico in September that right-wing accounts are at an advantage on the social media platform.
Trump helped push claims that social media websites like Facebook and Twitter were suppressing conservatives. He once wrote, “The Radical Left is in total command & control of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Google” in a tweet, which is no longer available after Twitter barred him from its platform.
Several House Republicans have also hurled censorship accusations at social media companies. A report done by five Republican representatives last year stated, “Big tech uses its power to suppress and marginalize conservative voices.”
“Anecdotal evidence indicates that Facebook employees, like others in big tech, tend to have little tolerance for certain views and aspects of the Republican party,” the representatives wrote in their report.
Deters has accused Facebook of fraud, negligence, detrimental reliance and violating the Kentucky Consumer Protection Act. He’s seeking repayment for money he lost in trying to use Facebook to promote his business. He’s also seeking additional damages.
This story was originally published October 6, 2021 at 1:53 PM.