• by Wendy Davis , January 15, 2025

Former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee has no grounds to revive claims against Meta Platforms over ads that misappropriated his name and image to sell CBD gummies, the social media company says.

Huckabee's lawsuit, filed in June, was dismissed last year by U.S. District Court Judge Gregory Williams in Delware. He ruled that the allegations, even if proven true, wouldn't show that Meta knew it was hosting fake ads.

Huckabee, who was recently tapped by President-elect Donald Trump to serve as ambassador to Israel, has urged Williams to reconsider. The former governor alleges in a proposed amended complaint that Meta was reckless when it published phony ads that made it appear as if he endorsed CBD.

“For more than four years now, Meta has known that public figures, such as the governor, have had their names, images, and likenesses used to promote CBD products without their knowledge and consent,” Huckabee asserted in the proposed complaint, adding that author J.K. Rowling, actress Jennifer Aniston and skateboarder Tony Hawk are among the people to publicly condemn the wrongful use of their images in phony CBD endorsements.

Meta counters that Huckabee's request is untimely, arguing that he could have raised those same allegations in his original complaint.

Huckabee “fails to offer any legitimate reason why he could not have amended his original complaint to add his new allegations before it was dismissed,” Meta argues in papers filed late last week.

The company also says the allegations in the proposed amended complaint are precluded by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which generally immunizes web companies from liability for material uploaded by third parties.

Williams previously said Meta couldn't rely on Section 230 in this situation, noting that the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals said last year in case involving TikTok that web companies aren't entitled to the protection of Section 230 when they're sued over algorithmic recommendations. (TikTok plans to ask the Supreme Court to review that ruling.)

Meta argues in its new papers that a “close read” of the proposed amended complaint shows that the company is immune from Huckabee's claims.

The “proposed amended claims are premised on the allegedly unlawful content of the alleged offending third-party ads and Meta’s role in merely hosting them,” the company writes, adding that the proposed claims “do not seek to hold Meta liable for its algorithm's role in promoting the ads.”