In a landmark ruling, U.S. Judge Terry A. Doughty issued an injunction on Tue., Jul. 4, that “bans the Department of Health and Human Services; the Department of Justice, including the Federal Bureau of Investigation; the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency; the Department of Homeland Security; and the Department of State from communicating and meeting with social media companies.”
The injunction is in response to a lawsuit brought by two Republican attorneys general who “produced evidence of a massive effort by Defendants, from the White House to federal agencies, to suppress speech based on its content,” according to Judge Doughty.
Senator Eric Schmitt, who filed the lawsuit while still serving as Missouri’s attorney general, celebrated the ruling as a “Big win for the First Amendment on this Independence Day.”
He expressed his concerns about censorship, stating, “Their view of ‘misinformation’ isn’t an excuse to censor. This is the most important free speech case in a generation. Freedom is on the march.”
The lawsuit, filed by Missouri and Louisiana, accused the Biden administration of pushing social media companies to censor content related to the coronavirus pandemic. The states argued that these actions constituted “the most egregious violations of the First Amendment in the history of the United States of America.”
While the injunction restricts communication between the government and social media companies, some exceptions to address specific concerns are allowed. Biden officials can engage with social media platforms in cases involving “criminal activity or criminal conspiracies,” “national security threats, extortion, or other threats,” and crimes related to U.S. elections.
Meanwhile, MSNBC has weighed in on the issue, asserting that the Biden Administration retains the authority to censor content that “undermines” faith in U.S. elections, citing it as a “national security issue.”
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