Judge upholds order to limit communication between Biden administration and social media companies

U.S. District Judge Terry A. Doughty on Monday rejected the Justice Department's request to pause the order barring senior Biden Administration officials from communicating with executives of social networking companies.

The government sought to have the injunction stayed on the grounds that it was too broad and threatened to affect the administration's obligation to protect national security and other responsibilities.

Doughty, however, reiterated his ruling and said that the order "is not as broad as it appears," as it only prevents defendants from doing something they have no legal right to do such as "contacting social media companies for the purpose of urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner, the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech posted on social-media platforms."

The judge said that Missouri and Louisiana may prevail in their case against the Biden Administration due to the significant evidence they have on the coercion allegedly committed by the government so that social networks would censor publications of citizens who expressed their opposition to the measures taken against covid-19.

The demand

The lawsuit was filed in 2022 and alleged that senior government officials overstepped their power and pressured social networks to censor content related to the pandemic virus, which constituted one of "the most egregious violations of the First Amendment in the history of the United States of America."

The lawsuit included officials from the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the Department of Justice (DOJ), the Department of State (USDOS) and the FBI.

The judge ruled in favor of the plaintiffs, and issued an order limiting communications among social media and officials such as Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.