A US federal court on Tuesday restricted some top officials and agencies of US President Joe Biden’s administration from meeting and communicating with social media companies.
The injunction was in response to a lawsuit brought by the Louisiana and Missouri attorneys-general.
Louisiana Attorney-General Jeff Landry said in a statement that the “historic injunction” would prevent the Biden administration from “censoring the core political speech of ordinary Americans” on social media.
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Landry said that senior federal officials were seeking to “dictate what Americans can and cannot say on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other platforms about COVID-19, elections, criticism of the government and more.”
The ruling by a federal court in Louisiana applies to a slew of top law enforcement agencies such as the FBI, the US Department of State, the US Department of Justice, as well as health agencies including the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
It also applies to several prominent officials such as White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre and US Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas.
The decision restricts agencies and officials from meeting with social media companies or flagging posts for “the purpose of urging, encouraging, pressuring or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech” under the first amendment to the US constitution.
The ruling said that the government could still inform social media firms about posts involving criminal activity, national security threats and foreign attempts to influence elections.
A White House official said that the justice department was reviewing the injunction and would evaluate its options.
“This administration has promoted responsible actions to protect public health, safety and security when confronted by challenges like a deadly pandemic and foreign attacks on our elections,” the official said. “Our consistent view remains that social media platforms have a critical responsibility to take account of the effects their platforms are having on the American people, but make independent choices about the information they present.”
In addition to communications with social media companies, the ruling also restricted the agencies and officials from “collaborating, coordinating, partnering” with academic groups, including the Election Integrity Partnership.
There was no immediate response from the platforms including Meta-owned Facebook, Twitter and Google.
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