Google Wins Dismissal of Censorship Suit by Conservative Group
- Court finds YouTube doesn’t qualify as a public forum
- Right-leaning organization claimed free speech violations
Photographer: Kiyoshi Ota/Bloomberg
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An educational group founded by a conservative talk-show host failed to show that Google engaged in illegal censorship by limiting access to some of the organization’s content through YouTube.
The Internet search company, now a unit of Alphabet Inc., and its video-sharing website don’t qualify as "state actors" that need to provide a public forum for speech under the First Amendment, U.S. District Judge Lucy H. Koh ruled. The educational group, Prager University, can amend its lawsuit and file again, the San Francisco-based judge said.