(ConservativeFreePress.com) – In a landmark decision this Tuesday, a U.S. federal judge prohibited several governmental entities and officials, some from President Biden’s cabinet, from engaging in communications with social media corporations with the intent to sway them towards censorship.
This prohibition is the aftermath of a lawsuit initiated by the attorneys general of Louisiana and Missouri. The lawsuit accuses the federal government of exerting pressure on social media platforms to suppress posts potentially promoting vaccine skepticism amidst the pandemic. Accusations also imply attempts to restrict discussions related to election matters.
The court order specifies that several government bodies, including the Department of Health and Human Services and the FBI, are not permitted to hold dialogues with social media firms with the objective of influencing these companies to curtail any content that could be protected by the First Amendment’s Free Speech Clause of the U.S. Constitution.
An official from the White House divulged that the Department of Justice is currently scrutinizing the order and plans to assess it. The order explicitly cites certain officials, including Alejandro Mayorkas, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, and Jen Easterly, the head of the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency.
Judge Terry Doughty authored the court order, responding to a request filed with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana. The order stipulates a few exceptions concerning the kind of communications that the government may continue to have with companies, inclusive of warnings related to national security and certain criminal activities.
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