Federal judge limits Biden administration contact with social media platforms

A federal judge blocked Biden administration officials Tuesday from communicating with social media companies, as two Republican state attorneys general challenge the legality of the administration’s efforts to curb disinformation.

U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, who was appointed by former President Trump, granted a preliminary injunction barring a wide swath of officials from the Department of Health and Human Services, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the Department of Justice, the State Department and the FBI from communicating with the companies.

The Republican attorneys general of Louisiana and Missouri are suing the administration over what they describe as a “campaign of censorship,” in which the Biden administration allegedly “coordinated and colluded with social-media platforms to identify disfavored speakers, viewpoints, and content.”

They argued that administration officials’ public and private communications with social media companies about removing content related to COVID-19 vaccines and public health measures, election integrity and other topics violated the First Amendment.

The attorneys general pointed to various calls by the 2020 Biden campaign and later the Biden administration, as well other Democratic lawmakers, to reform Section 230 over the spread of disinformation, which the lawsuit characterized as “threats” and a “campaign of pressure.”

Section 230 waives social media companies’ liability for content posted on its platforms by third parties.

They also cited efforts by the Biden administration to work with social media companies to rein in COVID-19 and election disinformation, which the suit described as “collusion.”

Under the injunction, Biden administration officials cannot email, call, send letters, text or meet with 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,” Doughty ruled.

However, Biden administration officials are still permitted to communicate with the platforms about criminal activity, national security threats, threats to public safety and posts “intending to mislead voters about voting requirements and procedures.”