Quote:This is a huge victory for free speech, though it must be kept in mind that the injunction issued by US District Court Judge Terry A. Doughty is a preliminary injunction that almost certainly will be appealed and will take a long time to be finally decided, perhaps by the Supreme Court eventually.  I expect there will be fierce attacks on the ruling, and on Judge Doughty, who is a Trump appointee (thank-you, Mitch McConnell). Judge Doughty’s nomination was confirmed by a vote of 98 – 0 on March 1, 2018.

The ruling by Judge Doughty is 135 pages long, and will take more time to analyze thoroughly, but as a first take, the following excerpts (impressive to me) are worth bearing in mind. (Footnotes are omitted)

Quote:The Sixth Circuit granted the injunction that blocks multiple federal agencies and top Biden admin officials from “urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing” social media companies to remove, delete, or suppress “content containing protected free speech posted on social media-platforms.”


The injunction also blocks these officials from:

[b]1)[/b] Flagging this content on social media platforms

[b]2)[/b] Urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing social media companies to change their content moderation guidelines

[b]3)[/b] Working with the Virality Project (a coalition of research entities that push for censorship), the Election Integrity Partnership (the Virality Project’s previous name), the Stanford Internet Observatory (a center that says it studies the “abuse” of the internet, receives government funding, and has been implicated in censorship pressure on social media platforms), or any similar groups for the purpose of urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing social media companies to censor content containing protected free speech


The lawsuit alleged that government officials overstepped boundaries by urging social media platforms to tackle posts that might incite vaccine hesitancy during the COVID-19 pandemic or influence elections.


The preliminary injunction could have far-reaching consequences regarding the First Amendment, finally threatening the way governments have been colluding with social media companies to censor the speech of Americans.


Judge Doughty’s order imposes constraints on several executive agencies including the Department of Justice, State Department, Department of Health and Human Services, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.


Moreover, the injunction names more than a dozen individual officials including Alejandro Mayorkas, the Department of Homeland Security Secretary, and Jen Easterly, who heads the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.


While the final ruling is pending, Judge Doughty’s injunction suggests he might favor the plaintiffs’ arguments. He commented that the evidence produced shows an extensive effort by the defendants to stifle speech based on its content.

Quote:The Biden administration appealed a preliminary injunction Wednesday issued to prevent federal officials from communicating with social media platforms to censor content containing protected speech.



Western District of Louisiana Judge Terry A. Doughty issued the injunction Tuesday after finding plaintiffs in the free speech lawsuit Missouri v. Biden, Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry and Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, had produced “evidence of a massive effort by Defendants, from the White House to federal agencies, to suppress speech based on its content.” The Biden administration appealed the injunction to the Fifth Circuit on Wednesday.


The injunction prevented federal officials, including those in the Department of Health and Human Services and the FBI, from communicating with social media platforms for “the purpose of urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech.”


Reporter: "Do you disagree with the judge’s ruling that this coordination was a form of censorship that specifically targeted Conservative speech?"


JEAN-PIERRE: "We disagree with the decision."

Quote:One day after a Louisiana federal judge set limits on the Biden administration’s communications with tech firms, the State Department canceled its regular meeting Wednesday with Facebook officials to discuss 2024 election preparations and hacking threats, according to a person at the company.


State Department officials said all future meetings, which had been held monthly, have been “canceled pending further guidance,” said the person, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to preserve working relationships. “Waiting to see if CISA cancels tomorrow,” the person added, referring to the Department of Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.

The person at Facebook said they presumed similar meetings the State Department had scheduled with other tech companies also were canceled, but that could not be confirmed immediately. Representatives for the State Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. CISA declined to comment, referring questions to the Justice Department, which did not immediately respond. Representatives for Google, which owns YouTube, and other social media companies also did not immediately respond.