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.
Photo: Bloomberg
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.
‘CORRECT IDENTIFICATION’: Beginning in May, Taiwanese married to Japanese can register their home country as Taiwan in their spouse’s family record, ‘Nikkei Asia’ said The government yesterday thanked Japan for revising rules that would allow Taiwanese nationals married to Japanese citizens to list their home country as “Taiwan” in the official family record database. At present, Taiwanese have to select “China.” Minister of Foreign Affairs Lin Chia-lung (林佳龍) said the new rule, set to be implemented in May, would now “correctly” identify Taiwanese in Japan and help protect their rights, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said in a statement. The statement was released after Nikkei Asia reported the new policy earlier yesterday. The name and nationality of a non-Japanese person marrying a Japanese national is added to the
AT RISK: The council reiterated that people should seriously consider the necessity of visiting China, after Beijing passed 22 guidelines to punish ‘die-hard’ separatists The Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) has since Jan. 1 last year received 65 petitions regarding Taiwanese who were interrogated or detained in China, MAC Minister Chiu Chui-cheng (邱垂正) said yesterday. Fifty-two either went missing or had their personal freedoms restricted, with some put in criminal detention, while 13 were interrogated and temporarily detained, he said in a radio interview. On June 21 last year, China announced 22 guidelines to punish “die-hard Taiwanese independence separatists,” allowing Chinese courts to try people in absentia. The guidelines are uncivilized and inhumane, allowing Beijing to seize assets and issue the death penalty, with no regard for potential
‘UNITED FRONT’ FRONTS: Barring contact with Huaqiao and Jinan universities is needed to stop China targeting Taiwanese students, the education minister said Taiwan has blacklisted two Chinese universities from conducting academic exchange programs in the nation after reports that the institutes are arms of Beijing’s United Front Work Department, Minister of Education Cheng Ying-yao (鄭英耀) said in an exclusive interview with the Chinese-language Liberty Times (the Taipei Times’ sister paper) published yesterday. China’s Huaqiao University in Xiamen and Quanzhou, as well as Jinan University in Guangzhou, which have 600 and 1,500 Taiwanese on their rolls respectively, are under direct control of the Chinese government’s political warfare branch, Cheng said, citing reports by national security officials. A comprehensive ban on Taiwanese institutions collaborating or
STILL COMMITTED: The US opposes any forced change to the ‘status quo’ in the Strait, but also does not seek conflict, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump’s administration released US$5.3 billion in previously frozen foreign aid, including US$870 million in security exemptions for programs in Taiwan, a list of exemptions reviewed by Reuters showed. Trump ordered a 90-day pause on foreign aid shortly after taking office on Jan. 20, halting funding for everything from programs that fight starvation and deadly diseases to providing shelters for millions of displaced people across the globe. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who has said that all foreign assistance must align with Trump’s “America First” priorities, issued waivers late last month on military aid to Israel and Egypt, the
RSS