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Authored by Zachary Stieber via The Epoch Times,

A federal appeals court on Aug. 26 declined to block Google from removing Robert F. Kennedy’s videos, ruling that Kennedy has not shown that the California-based company was a state actor when taking down the videos.

Kennedy’s lawyers said in a request for a preliminary injunction that Google was acting on advice from government officials when it removed multiple videos for allegedly violating the company’s medical misinformation policy. The lawyers requested an injunction blocking Google from removing additional videos from Kennedy’s YouTube page.

Google said it was merely applying its own policy and urged the court to deny the request.

U.S. District Judge Trina L. Thompson in 2023 sided with Google, finding that Kennedy had not established Google as a state actor and, therefore, rights from the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment have not been implicated.

Private entities can be treated as a state actor if shown to have acted under “coercive power” or “significant encouragement” from government officials, under court precedent.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit on Monday upheld the ruling.

U.S. Circuit Judges Consuelo M. Callahan and Gabriel P. Sanchez were part of the panel with U.S. District Judge John A. Kronstadt, who was sitting by designation.

Google did not respond to a request for comment.

A lawyer representing Kennedy said the ruling fell short.

Kennedy, an independent, suspended his campaign this month and announced his support for former President Donald Trump.