Project Veritas founder James O’Keefe filed a defamation lawsuit against CNN after an anchor purportedly made a false claim about Twitter’s decision to permanently suspend his account.
O’Keefe claimed that CNN anchor Ana Cabrera defamed his character while reporting on Twitter’s crackdown on users to “try to stop the spread of misinformation” and mentioned the suspension of Project Veritas as an example. O’Keefe alleged that contrary to Cabrera’s claim, however, Project Veritas was suspended by Twitter over an alleged Terms of Service violation involving the sharing of private information.
Defamation of a public figure is more difficult to prove than the standard cause of action. O’Keefe argued that he can prove malice using tweets from the anchor that referred to the private information policy that resulted in the permanent suspension of his account. O’Keefe said he will also rely on a report from CNN that correctly identified the reason for the suspension.
“Project Veritas is an investigative journalism organization whose reputation depends on its ethical and transparent conduct, and its production of reliable and accurate news reporting. By claiming Project Veritas was ‘spreading misinformation,’ CNN directly damaged and impugned Project Veritas’s reputation,” the complaint reads. “CNN’s factual claim that Project Veritas was banned for “promoting misinformation,” instead of truthful reporting of private facts, is patently and demonstrably false, and CNN maliciously made its claims with knowledge they were false or with reckless disregard for their falsity.”
This latest lawsuit comes after O’Keefe filed suit against Twitter for defamation. Twitter suspended his account for allegedly violating Twitter’s rules on “platform manipulation and spam.” At the time of his suspension, O’Keefe had nearly one million followers.
The purported violation came after O’Keefe’s posted a video of CNN technical director Charlie Chester discussing the network’s anti-Trump coverage. At the time, Twitter told the Media Research Center: “[a]s outlined in our policy on platform manipulation and spam, ‘You can’t mislead others on Twitter by operating fake accounts,’ and ‘you can’t artificially amplify or disrupt conversations through the use of multiple accounts.’”
O’Keefe’s lawsuit against Twitter alleged that the platform’s “published claim that Mr. O’Keefe “operat[ed] fake accounts” is patently and demonstrably false.” The suit also claimed that “Twitter was in a unique position to know that this claim was false.”
The suit further argued that “Twitter acted with intent to injure Mr. O’Keefe’s good name and reputation.”
Conservatives are under attack. Contact Twitter at (415) 222-9670 and demand that Big Tech be held to account to mirror the First Amendment while providing transparency, clarity on “hate speech” and equal footing for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us at the Media Research Center contact form, and help us hold Big Tech accountable.
Why hasn’t someone taken out, and I don’t mean on a date, the queers at cnn?
Too many of them.
CNN and MSNBC – like BLM/Antifa – can do no wrong. They have President Harrisbiden and Shumelosi protecting them.
I wish him luck on all fronts. We’ll see if the judges uphold the character of the law, or not! It’s time to hold social, and mainstream, media accountable for their total lack of honesty.
That includes Fox News, OAN, NewsMax, GOP TIMES, etc:
Provide some (researchable) quotes, Leroy.
I truly hope Mr. O’Keefe is successful in his civil suit against CNN. Take them to the cleaners James.
I hope he’s suing Twitter as well. They banned him on false pretenses. They have to prove that he was operating multiple accounts. If they can’t prove he was using multiple accounts, then their reasoning for banning him falls apart.
Of course, the same is true of youtube, though they’re a wee bit smarter. They’ve created their terms of service to be so vaguely worded it could mean saying “boo” would be ban-worthy. I mean, I got banned from youtube. No warnings, just “you’ve been verbally abusive” with no specifics at all. That’s fishy right there. Typically, unless its like extreme, they’re going to WARN you first. But, bam, no warnings and ban? All because I spoke as a Conservative and exposed LEFTIST flaws!