Candace Owens Loses Lawsuit Over Facebook Fact-Checking by Media

USA Today and another media organization, Lead Stories LLC, got a Delaware judge to throw out defamation, tortious interference, and unfair competition claims challenging their fact-checking of coronavirus-related Facebook posts by conservative political commentator Candace Owens.

Judge Craig A. Karsnitz dismissed the case from Delaware Superior Court, finding that the posts by Owens contained falsehoods and misinformation about the Covid-19 pandemic, not the fact-checking articles.

Because Owens is a public figure, First Amendment principles required her to show that statements about her in the news stories were false, disparaging, and made with “actual malice,” meaning without any effort to determine ...