by Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D., Childrens Health Defense:
The 5th Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals late Friday found Biden administration officials illegally suppressed free speech on social media, in a ruling that partially upheld a previous injunction limiting communication between key government officials and social media platforms.
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The ruling by a three-judge panel of the New Orleans-based court partially upheld a July 4 injunction issued by a lower court in Missouri et al. v. Biden et al., a lawsuit filed in May 2022 by the attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana along with several medical experts and journalists, alleging key government officials colluded with social media platforms to censor posts the government deemed “misinformation” or “disinformation.”
On July 14, the 5th Circuit granted the Biden administration a temporary administrative stay of the July 4 injunction. Oral arguments were heard in the case on Aug. 10.
Judges Edith Clement, Jennifer Elrod and Don Willett, co-authors of Friday’s 74-page opinion, rejected the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) request to fully reverse the lower court’s injunction that barred several Biden administration officials and federal agencies from communicating with social media companies about COVID-19-related topics.
The 5th Circuit found that White House officials, the surgeon general, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and the FBI “likely coerced or significantly encouraged social media platforms to moderate content, rendering those decisions state actions. In doing so, the officials likely violated the First Amendment.”
The judges’ ruling upheld the spirit of the original injunction, stating:
“Defendants, and their employees and agents, shall take no actions, formal or informal, directly or indirectly, to coerce or significantly encourage social-media companies to remove, delete, suppress, or reduce, including through altering their algorithms, posted social-media content containing protected free speech.
“That includes, but is not limited to, compelling the platforms to act, such as by intimating that some form of punishment will follow a failure to comply with any request, or supervising, directing, or otherwise meaningfully controlling the social-media companies’ decision-making process.”
Huge victory for free speech! An appellate court just ruled that Biden admin violated First Amendment by coercing platforms to censor. And BTW Trump admin did it too.https://t.co/RdRlw7dNsp
— Robert F. Kennedy Jr (@RobertKennedyJr) September 9, 2023
The judges said Biden administration officials “have engaged in a broad pressure campaign designed to coerce social-media companies into suppressing speakers, viewpoints, and content disfavored by the government. The harms that radiate from such conduct extend far beyond just the plaintiffs; it impacts every social-media user.”
“The government is not permitted to use the government-speech doctrine to muffle the expression of disfavored viewpoints,” the judges wrote.
Recent documents released as part of the “Twitter Files” and “Facebook Files” uncovered evidence the Biden administration and several key government officials pressured social media platforms to remove content that ran contrary to official narratives on COVID-19, vaccines and election interference.
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