Biden Officials Barred from Contacting Social Media Platforms by US Judge

A US federal judge has made a significant ruling, stating that various Biden administration officials are not allowed to contact social media companies with regard to moderating posts that are protected by the First Amendment.

Judge Terry A. Doughty has written in a 155-page memorandum ruling that he believes there is evidence to show that federal government officials have been targeting and suppressing “millions of protected free speech postings by American citizens.”

The Plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits in establishing that the Government has used its power to silence the opposition. Opposition to COVID-19 vaccines; opposition to COVID-19 masking and lockdowns; opposition to the lab-leak theory of COVID-19; opposition to the validity of the 2020 election; opposition to President Biden’s policies; statements that the Hunter Biden laptop story was true; and opposition to policies of the government officials in power. All were suppressed. It is quite telling that each example or category of suppressed speech was conservative in nature. This targeted suppression of conservative ideas is a perfect example of viewpoint discrimination of political speech. American citizens have the right to engage in free debate about the significant issues affecting the country.

According to the Washington Post, Republican attorneys general from Louisiana and Missouri are suing President Joe Biden, Dr. Anthony Fauci, the CDC, the Department of Homeland Security, and the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Disease. They claim that there has been a systematic campaign to control speech on social media since 2017, even before Biden took office.

According to the New York Times, Jameel Jaffer, the executive director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, responded to the ruling by saying, “It can’t be that the government violates the First Amendment simply by engaging with the platforms about their content-moderation decisions and policies… If that’s what the court is saying here, it’s a pretty radical proposition that isn’t supported by the case law.”

The New York Times also includes a statement from an unnamed White House official, who said, “Our consistent view remains that social media platforms have a critical responsibility to take account of the effects their platforms are having on the American people, but make independent choices about the information they present.” The article notes that the Justice Department is currently reviewing the ruling and considering its next steps.

As a result of the injunction, individuals such as DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) leader Jen Easterly, and FBI Foreign Influence Task Force leader Laura Dehmlow, as well as employees of these agencies and others, are prohibited from contacting, working with, or inquiring about posts protected by the First Amendment with social media companies.

Exceptions to this rule include:

Those named in the lawsuit are also prohibited from working with academic groups that focus on social media, such as the Election Integrity Partnership, the Virality Project, and the Stanford Internet Observatory.