The Justice Department’s Antitrust Division will file a statement of interest in a lawsuit accusing major tech and media companies of colluding to censor Children’s Health Defense (CHD), an organization founded by now-HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.
The lawsuit, filed in 2023, targets the Trusted News Initiative (TNI)—a coalition of 23 media and tech giants including Google, Meta, the BBC, Reuters, the AP, and The Washington Post. CHD alleges the TNI worked jointly to suppress online content from rival news sources under the guise of combating disinformation, violating antitrust law.
DOJ Antitrust chief Gail Slater and a team of senior officials argue the case presents valid antitrust claims under the Sherman Act, stressing that viewpoint suppression in the news market constitutes a harm to competition. “News consumers desire and demand diverse perspectives,” the DOJ writes. “Individual liberty—and consumer welfare—benefit greatly from viewpoint competition.”
The DOJ’s brief rejects the defendants’ claim that suppressing news competition isn’t a cognizable injury. Citing long-standing precedent, the department insists the Sherman Act applies equally to news organizations and that “concerted action” among media firms—even in the name of misinformation—can still amount to unlawful restraint of trade.
In its filing, the DOJ raises two main arguments: that suppressing diverse news sources constitutes an antitrust injury, and that joint decisions on news content qualify as concerted action subject to antitrust scrutiny. The department also warns against “product-feature fixing,” where firms collectively decide which types of information are available to the public.
