Judge blocks US officials from contacting social media firms

A US federal judge on Tuesday issued a preliminary injunction that blocks key agencies and officials from President Joe Biden's administration from communicating with social media platforms.

US District Judge Terry Doughty of Louisana is yet to make a final ruling on a lawsuit brought by the attorneys general of Louisiana and Missouri in 2022.

They alleged the US government went too far in encouraging social media companies to address posts that contributed to either vaccine hesitancy during the COVID-19 pandemic or upend elections.

In doing so, they argued the US government may have run afoul of the Free Speech Clause of the Constitution's First Amendment.

Communication cut off 

The judge's order, first reported by the Washington Post, puts limits on some executive agencies, including the department of health and human services and the FBI.

They can 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 US Constitution.

The judge said warnings about risks to national security and criminal activity would be allowed. 

Doughty, however, found the attorneys general "have produced evidence of a massive effort by defendants, from the White House to federal agencies, to suppress speech based on its content."

Republicans and the White House react 

A White House official said the Justice Department was reviewing the order and will evaluate its options.

It marks a win for Republicans who sued the Biden administration saying that they were using the pandemic and the threat of misinformation as an excuse to curb views that disagreed with the government.

Between 2020 and 2022, for example, Twitter suspended nearly 11,000 accounts that spread misinformation about the pandemic.

Senator Eric Schmitt, who was the Missouri attorney general when the lawsuit was filed, wrote on Twitter the ruling was "a huge win for the First Amendment and a blow to censorship."

Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry said the injunction prevents the administration "from censoring the core political speech of
ordinary Americans" on social media.

rm/lo (Reuters, AP)