The Biden Administration, as well as the FBI and some top health officials, are accused of persuading social giants to violate free speech.
This was revealed by a federal court appeals ruling on Friday, Sept. 8.
Biden Admin Accused of Persuading Socmed Giants to Violate Free Speech
According to USA Today's latest report, the federal appeals court ruled that the White House, the FBI, and U.S. health officials allegedly violated the First Amendment rights of social media users.
The ruling explained that the officials are doing this by pressuring social media firms to suppress or remove posts about elections and COVID-19.
Specifically, the lower-court judge discovered that U.S. officials are illegally coercing Facebook and YouTube into censoring posts about the 2020 election and the novel coronavirus pandemic.
The decision, which was made by the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals, partly upheld an order that banned numerous federal agencies from contacting Facebook, X (formerly called Twitter), YouTube, and other online platforms.
NBC reported that they are barred from persuading, pressuring, and threatening social media companies to censor content they consider misinformation.
"Social media platforms' content-moderation decisions must be theirs and theirs alone," said the court.
Biden Admin Has 10 Days to Appeal
The new injunction against online censorship applies to the White House, the U.S. Surgeon General, the FBI, and the U.S. CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It no longer applies to other federal officials covered by the lower court order because the injunction was narrowed by the 5th Circuit.
As of writing, U.S. President Joe Biden's administration has 10 days to ask the U.S. Supreme Court to check the case.
The latest injunction is a part of the lawsuit that was filed by the attorneys general of Louisiana and Missouri in 2022.
Recently, the Biden Administration defended itself, saying that they are only asking social media giants to take down harmful content, but never forcing them to do so.
Now, the Biden Admin and the U.S. Department of Justice, which defends the administration, declined to comment regarding the latest court ruling.
If you want to learn more details about the latest free speech violation allegations against the U.S. government, you can click this link.
