• by Wendy Davis , June 23, 2026

A federal appeals court has revived former Arkansas Governor Mike Huckabee's lawsuit against Meta over fake endorsements for CBD gummies.

In a ruling issued Tuesday, a three-judge panel of the 3rd Circuit Court of Appeals held that the allegations in Huckabee's complaint, if proven true, could show that Meta knew or should have known the ads were phony.

The ruling came in a dispute dating to July 2024, when Huckabee -- currently U.S.ambassador to Israel -- sued Meta over the ads, including one that linked to a fakeFox News site.

Huckabee claimed in the complaint that Meta violated Arkansas's misappropriation law, the Frank Broyles Publicity Rights Protection Act. That law, named for University of Arkansas coach Frank Broyles, gives state residents the right to control the commercial use of their names and images.

U.S. District Judge Gregory Williams in Delaware threw out Huckabee's lawsuit last year, ruling that the allegations in Huckabee's complaint, even if proven true, wouldn't support an inference that Meta knew the Huckabee's image was used without his authorization.

A three-judge panel of the 3rd Circuit reversed that ruling and returned the case to Williams for further proceedings.

The judges pointed to three allegations regarding the ads that, if proven true, could have put Meta on notice that the ads were fake.

The first of those allegations was that the ads were "premised on a development that Huckabee, a public figure and 'lifelong opponent of marijuana and its derivatives — i.e., CBD,' ... is now endorsing CBD products."

The second was that Facebook previously "hosted similar, fraudulent CBD advertisements using the name, image, and likeness of other media personalities, and that news outlets reported on those instances."

And the third was that one of the ads linked to a fake Fox News site.

"That bogus link, when coupled with the unusual association of Huckabee and CBD and the prior fraudulent CBD advertisements on Facebook, suffices for allegations that Meta was plausibly 'aware of facts or circumstances' from which the advertisements’ misuse of Huckabee’s name, image, or likeness was 'apparent,'" Circuit Judge Peter Phipps wrote in an opinion joined by Judges Emil Bove and Arianna Freeman.

The ruling is one of several recent decisions against platforms in lawsuits over scam ads.

For instance, a federal judge in California ruled in September that Facebook users who lost money after responding to scam ads could proceed with claims against the platform. Also, a different federal judge in California said in a 2024 ruling that Meta must face Australian billionaire Andrew Forrest's claims over fraudulent cryptocurrency ads that used his name and image.

Likewise, a state appellate court in California ruled in 2024 that Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak to proceed with a lawsuit against YouTube over videos that used his image as part of a cryptocurrency fraud.

At the same time, not all judges have sided against social platforms: A federal judge in Maryland recently threw out two lawsuits against Meta over online scams. 

Meta has not yet responded to MediaPost's request for comment on the appellate ruling in Huckabee's lawsuit.