Federal court rejects Gabbard's bias suit against Google

[Dennis Donovan]

https://www.politico.com/news/2020/03/04/court-gabbard-bias-suit-google-121226

Gabbard sued Google last summer after her campaign's advertising account was suspended for several hours following the first Democratic presidential debate.

By STEVEN OVERLY

03/04/2020 03:11 PM EST

A federal judge has rejected a lawsuit in which Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard accused Google of temporarily suspending her presidential campaign ads due to political bias — noting that the online search giant is not a government entity bound by the First Amendment.

District Judge Stephen Wilson said Gabbard failed to show that Google's decisions are "in any way equivalent to a government regulation of an election."

"Google does not hold primaries, it does not select candidates, and it does not prevent anyone from running for office or voting in elections," Wilson wrote in his decision dated Tuesday. "To the extent Google 'regulates' anything, it regulates its own private speech and platform."

Gabbard sued Google last summer after her campaign's advertising account was suspended for several hours following the first Democratic presidential debate. The bias allegations by the Hawaii Democrat, whose campaign picked up its first and only delegate on Super Tuesday, echoed those of Republicans in Washington who have lobbed similar accusations, as well as a conservative group that lost a similar suit against Google-owned YouTube last week.

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Oops?

[bitterross]

1. Is there a larger GOP goal here?

Gabbi is none too bright. I believe that is true. However, her attorneys and the ones in the other case that was mentioned are not dumb. Is this just another smack a google or are they trying to get the courts to classify these large communications companies into some new quasi-governmental category? One they believe they could use to their advantage somehow?

Do they believe they can impose limits on them if they do that?