This is Why John Stossel is Sueing Facebook for At Least $2M

Former TV journalist John Stossel is suing social media giant Facebook alleging defamation over fact-check label and is looking for at least $2 million.

Stossel is demanding at least $2 million in damages from Facebook in a lawsuit he filed and has claimed that the company defamed him by appending fact-checking labels to two videos he posted about climate change.

In a statement to Variety, a Facebook spokesperson said, “We believe this case is without merit and we will defend ourselves vigorously against the allegations.”

Stossel’s lawsuit says that in the past year he had posted two short video reports on Facebook in which he “interviewed experts in the climate change arena.”

In one video, “Government Fueled Fires,” about the 2020 wildfires in California, Facebook and its fact-checking partners “falsely attributed to Stossel a claim he never made, and on that basis flagged the content as ‘misleading’ and ‘missing context,’ so that would-be viewers would be routed to the false attribution statement.”

The lawsuit says that Stossel’s video “explored a scientific hypothesis” that “while climate change undoubtedly contributes to forest fires, it was not the primary cause of the 2020 California fires.”

Per the lawsuit, Stossel says he never made the claim that “Forest fires are caused by poor management. Not by climate change,” which was in Facebook’s fact-check.

On his second video, “Are We Doomed?”, Facebook added a “partly false”/“factual inaccuracies” label.

The video questioned claims made by those Stossel refers to as “environmental alarmists,” including “claims that hurricanes are getting stronger, that sea level rise poses a catastrophic threat, and that humans will be unable to cope with the fallout.”

Stossel claims the Facebook fact-check didn’t actually challenge any facts in the video. According to the former ABC News journalist, the company’s fact-check process “is nothing more than a pretext… to defame users with impunity, particularly when Defendants disagree with the scientific opinions expressed in user content.”

Stossel’s lawsuit seeks “general, special and compensatory damages” of at least $1 million and exemplary and punitive damages of at least $1 million.

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