07/05/2023

U.S. Judge Restricts Biden Officials from Contact with Social Media Firms

They can't encourage them to moderate false or misleading content

A U.S. federal judge on Tuesday restricted some agencies and officials of the administration of President Joe Biden from meeting and communicating with social media companies to moderate their content, according to a court filing.

The injunction came in response to a lawsuit brought by Republican attorneys general in Louisiana and Missouri, who alleged that U.S. government officials went too far in efforts to encourage social media companies to address fictitious posts they worried could contribute to vaccine hesitancy during the COVID-19 pandemic or upend elections.

The ruling said government agencies like the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and the FBI could not talk to 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" under the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

Please select this link to read the complete article from Reuters.