A federal judge has ruled to limit the Biden administration's communication with social media companies after a lawsuit filed by the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana that claim the Democrat's leadership is trying to silence its critics.
The decision on Tuesday prevents United States President Joe Biden's administration from communicating with social media platforms regarding broad swaths of content online. The ruling is seen as one that could curtail efforts to combat false and misleading information regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and other social issues.
Limiting Biden Administration's Contact With Social Media
Some see the order as potentially having significant First Amendment implications and is a major development in the fierce legal battle over online boundaries and limits of speech.
The federal judge's ruling was a victory for Republican lawmakers who have repeatedly accused social media sites, such as Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube, of disproportionately taking down right-leaning content, sometimes in collaboration with the government.
On the other hand, Democrats have argued that the platforms have failed to adequately police misinformation and hateful speech, which has led to dangerous outcomes, including violence, as per the New York Times.
Judge Terry A. Doughty of the US District Court for the Western District of Louisiana was the one who gave out the ruling. He said that parts of the government, which includes the Department of Health and Human Services and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, will be barred from talking to social media companies.
The affected talks would be those made by government officials with the aims of "urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing" the "removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech."
Furthermore, Judge Doughty said that the agencies affected by his ruling could not flag specific posts to the social media platforms or even request reports about their efforts to take down specific content. On the other hand, the judge's ruling said that the government was still allowed to notify the platforms about posts that detail crimes, national security threats, or foreign attempts to influence elections.
Battling False Information Online
Doughty, appointed by Trump, and his ruling threaten to undo years of efforts to boost coordination between the government and social media companies. The federal government has, for more than a decade, attempted to work with social media companies to address criminal activity, including child sexual abuse images and terrorism, according to the Washington Post.
Coordination and communication between government officials and social media companies have increased over the past five years as the federal government is trying to respond to rising election interference and voter suppression efforts.
While Doughty's 155-page decision is set to take effect immediately, it is not a final decision, and the Biden administration can appeal it to the New Orleans-based 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals. On Tuesday, the Justice Department declined to comment on the matter as a White House spokesperson did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Judge Doughty's decision cites a wide range of topics that he said were all suppressed on social media platforms at the request of government officials. He said that each topic that was suppressed was a conservative view, which he claims "is quite telling," said Politico.
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