Live Action, a leading national pro-life organization, has sent a legal demand to YouTube and Pinterest alleging that both companies have violated the law by discriminating against the organization.
“When reviewing the evidence in both of these cases, it is quite clear that YouTube and Pinterest have engaged in discriminatory and speech-suppressing actions that have led to monetary and reputational damages to our organization,” said Live Action president Lila Rose in a statement.
“We have played by the rules outlined by these enterprises, paid our bills and lived up to the terms of service agreements, yet they still choose to discriminate against us because we are a pro-life advocacy organization.”
Live Action has retained Harmeet Dhillon as its attorney. Dhillon is known for her high-profile cases against big tech, including the class-action lawsuit against Google on behalf of employees who say they were discriminated against for their political viewpoints. She recently launched Publius Lex, a non-profit aimed at protecting American civil liberties in an era of rising censorship and political intolerance.
“YouTube and Pinterest are clearly in violation of the law and must remedy this situation,” said Dhillon.
“The evidence in both of these cases is substantial, ranging from suppression of speech and breach of contract to censorship and banning of Live Action based on false claims.”
Earlier this year, image-sharing website Pinterest falsely labeled Live Action a “pornographic” website, using the label as a pretext to suppress content from the pro-life group.
In its demand letter to Pinterest, Live Action’s attorneys say “Pinterest’s conduct to date suggests that Live Action cannot expect equal treatment on equal terms from Pinterest; instead, it appears that our client can expect kneejerk reactions and poorly thought-out pretexts for speech suppression.”
“Pinterest’s blatant and arbitrary discrimination against Live Action violates California law, and entitles Live Action to compensatory and injunctive relief.”
Live Action also accuses Google-owned video platform YouTube of discriminating against it by refusing to run its ads. In its legal demand to YouTube, the pro-life group’s attorneys say “Live Action generated video ad content, and satisfied all of YouTube’s various conditions and terms of service posted on its website and on affiliated websites, which satisfaction YouTube has acknowledged by approving the ads.”
“Nevertheless, YouTube failed to deliver the promised advertisements.” According to Live Action, YouTube has replied saying it is “looking into the matter.”
Breitbart News has reached out to Pinterest and Google for comment.
Update — A YouTube spokesperson provided this comment to Breitbart News:
We’ve been very public that for a wide range of news and information queries, we have algorithms that are designed to surface authoritative content of all viewpoints, including pro-choice and pro-life videos. This means we bring authoritative content to the top of our search results for abortion-related queries, among many other health and news-related topics. Our search results and ads policies function the same regardless of whether there are pro-choice or pro-life viewpoints involved.
Are you a corporate or Big Tech insider who wants to confidentially reveal wrongdoing or political bias at your company? Reach out to Allum Bokhari at his secure email address allumbokhari@protonmail.com.
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News.
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