Biden Admin Can't Coordinate With Social Media To Suppress Speech, Federal Judge Rules

[mystery-ak]

Biden Admin Can't Coordinate With Social Media To Suppress Speech, Federal Judge Rules


Gretchen Clayson
Reporter
July 04, 2023 3:25 PM ET
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A federal judge issued an injunction Tuesday ruling that the Biden administration likely violated the First Amendment when it worked with social media companies to censor opposing views.

Calling the censorship “Orwellian,” Judge Terry A. Doughty of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, stated that Republican attorneys general of Louisiana and Missouri “have produced evidence of a massive effort by Defendants, from the White House to federal agencies, to suppress speech based on its content,” the Washington Post reported.

https://twitter.com/nytimes/status/1676292291663634442

Doughty barred members of the Biden administration — including officials with the Department of Health and Human Services and the Federal Bureau of Investigation — from communicating with social media companies for “the purpose of urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech,” The New York Times reported.

more
https://dailycaller.com/2023/07/04/biden-officials-barred-social-media-censorship-federal-judge-rules/

[LMAO]

It is a blatant violation of free speech.

The left claimed that social media companies are private entities that get the right to censor. Not when they are working with the government to suppress speech

[Cyber Liberty]

Like the regime is going to obey this order.  It is laughable.

[Smokin Joe]

Like the regime is going to obey this order.  It is laughable.

They will do a workaround.

They will have their buddies in the Banks put pressure on the Social Media companies (or their key employees who aren't so inclined) to censor "misinformation"...

..."misinformation" which has of late often proven to be the only truth out there.

But if most folks never see it, they can't think it.

[Elderberry]

Legal Insurrection by William A. Jacobson July 4, 2023

Independence Day: Federal Court Enjoins Biden-Big Tech Collusive “far-reaching and widespread censorship campaign” against Conservatives

“The Plaintiffs are likely to succeed on the merits in establishing that the Government has used its power to silence the opposition…. It is quite telling that each example or category of suppressed speech was conservative in nature…. [T]he evidence produced thus far depicts an almost dystopian scenario.”

We previously have covered the lawsuit brought by Missouri and Louisiana against the Biden administration regarding collusion with big tech platforms to silence mostly conservative voices.

After extensive pre-trial proceedings, the federal District Court has issued a Preliminary Injunction prohibiting further collusion. The Memorandum Decision is 155 pages. Most of it consists of extensive findings of fact and evidence of the collusion. Here are the key summary parts from the introduction and conclusion (emphasis added):

    This case is about the Free Speech Clause in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution. The explosion of social-media platforms has resulted in unique free speech issues— this is especially true in light of the COVID-19 pandemic. If the allegations made by Plaintiffs are true, the present case arguably involves the most massive attack against free speech in United States’ history. In their attempts to suppress alleged disinformation, the Federal Government, and particularly the Defendants named here, are alleged to have blatantly ignored the First Amendment’s right to free speech.

Although the censorship alleged in this case almost exclusively targeted conservative speech, the issues raised herein go beyond party lines….

***

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.

More: https://legalinsurrection.com/2023/07/independence-day-federal-court-enjoins-biden-big-tech-collusive-far-reaching-and-widespread-censorship-campaign-against-conservatives/

[Bigun]

Obviously, trying to stop the government from coordinating with social media groups to suppress information adverse to both their interests is a little like squeezing Jello in a closed fist; they will find an angle out of the limitations.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI), specifically created as an outcome of the post-911 Patriot Act, is the pivot point on the surveillance radar sweep.

Prior to the DNI the general Intelligence Community (IC) surveillance faced offshore and swept foreign adversaries. If any threat was picked up that included the potential for domestic terrorism, the identified contact transferred from the CIA, NSA, DoD into the DOJ and FBI. The DOJ then used the FISA Court to request transfer of targeting from foreign to domestic.

However, after 911 it was determined the national security surveillance radar needed to sweep a full 360° to include domestic surveillance. The ODNI was the office created to manage the pivot point. As a specific outcome of the Patriot Act, American citizens were now under the same surveillance as foreign adversaries. The new definition of American citizens being threats to the national security state is ultimately what led to our taking off shoes at TSA checkpoints in airports. TSA is a subsidiary agency of DHS.

Offshore surveillance now flowed from the CIA, DoD, NSA, IC into the ODNI, who then filtered it, and if needed transferred it to the newly created DHS.

Barack Obama and Eric Holder did not create a weaponized DOJ and FBI; the institutions were already weaponized by the Patriot Act. What Obama and Holder did was take the preexisting system and retool it, so the weapons of government only targeted one side of the political continuum.

This point is where many people understandably get confused.

(1) The Patriot Act turned the intel surveillance radar from foreign searches for terrorists to domestic searches for terrorists.
(2) Obama/Biden then redefined what is a “terrorist” to include their political opposition.

https://theconservativetreehouse.com/blog/2023/07/04/interesting-court-ruling-against-govt-and-biden-administration-prohibiting-federal-agencies-from-contact-with-social-media-on-first-amendment-protected-speech/

[mountaineer]

While Facebook and the government were colluding to suppress free speech on the subject of Covid ... Mark Zuckerberg privately told Facebook execs to be cautious about mRNA vaccines because "we just don't know the long-term side effects of basically modifying people's DNA and RNA."  He then censored scientists, doctors, and mRNA vaccine-injured individuals.

https://twitter.com/KanekoaTheGreat/status/1676792059267788802

[Elderberry]

Texas Scorecard by  Matthew DeLaCruz July 10, 2023

Accused of censoring conservative views, the judge called the administration’s actions “the most massive attack against free speech in U.S. history.”

A new court ruling says the Biden administration has disregarded the First Amendment, after pressing social media companies to censor conservative views.

Federal Judge Terry Doughty of the Federal District Court of Louisiana issued a broad preliminary injunction barring the Biden administration and multiple federal agencies from communicating with social media companies about online content. Doughty ruled that the Biden administration’s coercion of social media companies into online censorship blatantly violated the First Amendment.

“The present case arguably involves the most massive attack against free speech in United States history,” wrote Doughty in his 155-page ruling.

Notably, the defendants in this case include the Biden administration, the Federal Investigation Bureau (FBI), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

The lawsuit, filed by the Republican Attorney Generals of Missouri and Louisiana, accused the Biden administration of pressuring social media companies to heavily censor conservative views on the origins of COVID-19, government-ordered health measures, and election security. The plaintiffs argued that the White House essentially coerced social media companies into suppressing ideas and content disliked by the Biden administration.

More: https://texasscorecard.com/federal/federal-judge-finds-biden-administration-blatantly-disregarded-the-first-amendment/

[PeteS in CA]

Free Speech Win: Biden Administration Bid to Overturn Censorship Injunction Fails

https://pjmedia.com/news-and-politics/benbartee/2023/07/12/free-speech-win-biden-administration-bid-to-overturn-censorship-injunction-fails-n1710224

Yesterday I reported at PJ Media that the Brandon entity had filed an appeal following a federal judge’s injunction against its widespread and unconstitutional social media censorship regime.
...
The appeal to the injunction, thanks to a lone federal Trump-appointed judge who held the line — presumably under immense pressure from various Deep State actors — has failed.

Via CBS:

A federal judge on Monday turned down a Justice Department request to temporarily pause an order that blocks top Biden administration officials and several agencies from contacting social media companies, rejecting the government’s claims that the injunction was too broad and threatened to chill lawful conduct.

U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, appointed to the federal bench by former President Donald Trump, reiterated in a 13-page ruling denying the Justice Department’s request for a stay that Missouri and Louisiana were likely to succeed on the merits of their case against the Biden administration…