A federal appeals court has sided against anti-vaccine advocate Dr. Joseph Mercola, refusing to reinstate his lawsuit claiming YouTube wrongly terminated his account and blocked access to his videos. YouTube removed Mercola’s account in September 2021 as part of its crackdown on videos alleging vaccines cause harmful side effects or are ineffective.
Mercola filed a complaint in the Northern District of California, asserting that Google, YouTube’s parent company, breached its contract by canceling his account without “reasonable” notice. He cited YouTube’s terms of service, which mention providing “reasonable advance notice of any material modifications” to the user agreement.
U.S. District Court Magistrate Judge Laurel Beeler dismissed Mercola’s complaint, ruling that YouTube’s terms allowed the company to remove content believed to be harmful. Mercola appealed to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals, reiterating his argument that Google was required to notify him before terminating his channel.
A three-judge panel disagreed, stating that YouTube’s terms allowed the removal of content considered harmful. “In September 2021, when YouTube terminated Mercola’s account, it was reasonable (even if incorrect) to consider ‘anti-vaccine’ postings to be harmful to the public,” the judges wrote.
Mercola also argued that YouTube’s contract was unfairly one-sided and sought permission to amend his complaint. The panel rejected this argument, noting that Mercola had contracted for a non-essential service and had largely received the benefit of his agreement with YouTube.
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