Company’s sponsorship of Federalist Society gala prompts action from singer who says site ‘confuses readers regarding truthfulness’

This article is more than 9 months old

This article is more than 9 months old

Neil Young has deleted his Facebook artist page in response to the company’s sponsorship of the annual gala dinner of the Federalist Society, the powerful rightwing legal group behind the nomination of the conservative supreme court justice Brett Kavanaugh.

Young also cited the “false information regularly supplied to the public on Facebook, with its knowledge” as his reason for removing the account.

“I don’t feel that a social site should be making obvious commitments to one side of politics or the other,” wrote Young on his website. “It further confuses readers regarding truthfulness in coverage and message.”

Facebook, the world’s largest social media company, was listed as a “gold circle” sponsor of the 2019 National Lawyers Convention in Washington, and was featured in the guidebook app for the event on 14 November, where Kavanaugh was the keynote speaker.

Kavanaugh used his speech to express his “gratitude” to those who stood by him during his supreme court confirmation hearing a year ago following allegations by Dr Christine Blasey Ford that he had sexually assaulted her in their school days. Kavanaugh denied her claims and was approved to the supreme court.

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Days after Kavanaugh’s speech, Blasey Ford made a rare public appearance to accept an award from the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California in Beverly Hills. “When I came forward last September,” she said, “I did not feel courageous. I was simply doing my duty as a citizen.”

The Federalist Society has played a key role in the decades-long Republican strategy to pack US courts with conservatives, which has been advanced under Donald Trump’s administration. The group’s executive vice-president, Leonard Leo, advised the president on Kavanaugh’s controversial appointment.