(AP) – A judge on Tuesday barred several federal agencies and Biden administration officials from working with social media companies on “protected speech,” a decision called “a blow to censorship” by one of the Republican officials suing of which caused the sentence. .
U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty of Louisiana granted the injunction in response to a 2022 lawsuit filed by the attorneys general of Louisiana and Missouri. Their lawsuit alleged that the federal government overreached in its efforts to convince social media companies to address posts that could cast doubt on the vaccine during the COVID-19 pandemic or affect the election.
Doughty cited “substantial evidence” of a far-reaching censorship campaign. He wrote that “the evidence produced so far paints an almost dystopian scenario. During the COVID-19 pandemic, a period perhaps most characterized by widespread doubt and uncertainty, the U.S. government appears to have assumed a role akin to a Orwellian “ministry of truth.”
Republican U.S. Sen. Eric Schmitt, who was Missouri’s attorney general when the lawsuit was filed, said on Twitter that the ruling was “a huge victory for the First Amendment and a blow to censorship.”
Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry said the order prevents the administration from “censoring the basic political speech of ordinary Americans” on social media.
“The evidence in our case is shocking and offensive with senior federal officials deciding they could dictate what Americans can and cannot say on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other platforms about COVID-19, the election, criticism of the government and more.” Landry said in a statement.
The Justice Department is reviewing the warrant “and will evaluate its options in this case,” said a White House official who was not authorized to discuss the case publicly and spoke on condition of anonymity.
“This administration has promoted responsible actions to protect public health, safety and security in the face of challenges like a deadly pandemic and foreign attacks on our elections,” the official said. “Our consistent view remains that social media platforms have a critical responsibility to consider the effects their platforms have on the American people, but to make independent decisions about the information they present.”
The ruling listed several government agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services and the FBI, that are barred by the requirement from conversations with social media companies aimed at “encouraging, pressuring, or in any way inducing the removal, the suppression, suppression, or reduction of content that contains protected freedom of expression”.
The order mentions several officials by name, including the Secretary of Health and Human Services, Xavier Becerra, the Secretary of the Department of National Security, Alejandro Mayorkas, among others.
Doughty allowed several exceptions, including reporting social media companies of posts that implicate criminal activity and conspiracies; as well as notify social media companies of threats to national security and other threats posted on the platforms.
Plaintiffs in the suit also included individuals, including conservative website owner Jim Hoft. The lawsuit accused the administration of using the possibility of favorable or unfavorable regulatory action to coerce social media platforms into removing what it considered misinformation about masks and vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic. It also covered other issues, including claims about election integrity and news about material on a laptop owned by Hunter Bidenson of the president
Administration lawyers said the government left it up to social media companies to decide what constituted disinformation and how to combat it. In a brief, they likened the lawsuit to an attempt to place a legal gag order on the federal government and “suppress the speech of federal government officials under the guise of protecting the free speech rights of others.”
“Plaintiffs’ proposed intervention would significantly impede the federal government’s ability to combat foreign malign influence campaigns, prosecute crimes, protect national security, and provide accurate information to the public about matters of great public concern such as health care and electoral integrity,” he said. says the administration in a May 3 court filing.
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Salter reported from O’Fallon, Missouri. Associated Press reporters Kevin McGill in New Orleans and Cal Woodward, Colleen Long and Ellen Knickmeyer in Washington, DC contributed to this report.
