A pivotal First Amendment lawsuit is set to determine whether President Biden’s administration violated free speech rights by colluding with social media platforms to censor contrarian views on Covid-19 and election security.
The suit, initiated by Republican attorneys general from Missouri and Louisiana last year, accuses the administration of promoting a “federal censorship enterprise” that manipulates social media platforms into suppressing dissenting perspectives.
Presiding over the case is Judge Terry A. Doughty, a former Trump appointee, who is examining the extent of intervention between the US government and leading social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, Facebook, YouTube, and LinkedIn. In late March, Doughty declined to dismiss the case, indicating that the free speech claims warranted further examination.
Doughty stated, “Missouri and Louisiana have claimed social media sites violated the First Amendment by over-censoring users on social media over topics like COVID and election security. However, the DOJ claims bans were necessary for public health and safety.” This dichotomy between the ideals of free speech and the reality of a public health crisis represents the heart of the legal argument.
If the plaintiffs win, it will result in a preliminary injunction, blocking federal officials from pressuring social media platforms into censoring objectionable content. Notably, high-ranking officials, including Dr. Anthony Fauci, were deposed in the litigation process.
The lawsuit alleges that several federal agencies have systematically flagged considerable amounts of speech protected by the First Amendment for censorship, following “hundreds of meetings about misinformation.” The plaintiffs point to an email sent to Google employees in April 2021 by Rob Flaherty, the White House’s then-director of digital strategy, accusing YouTube of fostering vaccine hesitancy. “This is concern that is shared at the highest (and I mean highest) levels of the WH [White House],” Flaherty wrote in the email.
Since Biden’s presidency began, several prominent figures, including ex-President Donald Trump, current Democratic presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr., and Republican congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene, among others, have had various social media accounts banned.
The Justice Department has submitted a near 300-page brief refuting the allegations. The DOJ statement claims, “The record in this case shows that the Federal Government promoted necessary and responsible actions to protect public health, safety and security when confronted by a deadly pandemic and hostile foreign assaults on critical election infrastructure.”
The DOJ contends that approving the injunction would notably impair the federal government’s capacity to counteract foreign malign influence campaigns, prosecute crimes, protect national security, and provide accurate public information on issues like health care and election integrity.
This lawsuit unfolds in the wake of numerous high-profile social media account suspensions, prompting other censored medical activists, independent journalists, and conservative commentators to file complaints as well. Missouri v. Biden extends beyond the question of censorship, and will potentially dictate the rights of social media figures in the years to come.
