• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, November 1, 2024

Meta Platforms is pressing a federal judge to dismiss former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee's lawsuit over allegations that the social platform displayed ads that misappropriated his identity to sell CBD gummies.

“Section 230 provides complete immunity from suit for all of plaintiff’s claims, requiring dismissal of plaintiff’s complaint in full,” the company argues in papers filed in late October with U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Williams in Wilmington, Delaware.

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act broadly immunizes web companies from liability for material created by outside advertisers.

Meta's new papers come in a battle dating to June 2023, when Huckabee sued Meta over the ads. Among other claims, he said Meta violated an Arkansas law that gives people the right to control the commercial use of their names and images.

“Because Meta approved and maintained advertisements that unauthorizedly used and exploited plaintiff’s name, photograph, and likeness, plaintiff is now wrongly associated with the CBD industry and marijuana use,” Huckabee alleged.

His complaint referenced several fake ads, including one that linked to a phony Fox News site.

Meta argued in a September filing that it was protected by Section 230, arguing that the ads were created by third parties.

Huckabee countered in early October that Section 230 shouldn't apply for several reasons, including that Meta allegedly used algorithms to serve ads. Attorneys for the former governor noted that the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals -- which covers Delaware -- recently ruled in a separate matter that Section 230 didn't protect TikTok from claims over its algorithmic recommendations.

Meta argues in its new papers that the decision regarding TikTok isn't relevant to Huckabee's lawsuit because the reach of the ads that used his image “depended on input from third-party advertisers, and were not the creation of Meta’s algorithm.”

Williams hasn't yet indicated when he will issue a ruling.