A federal judge refused a motion to dismiss in a case alleging collusion between the government and Big Tech to censor COVID-19 and other topics, the Conservative Brief reported. The lawsuit asserts that by labeling posts as "misinformation" and "disinformation," social media companies violated the First Amendment.
The lawsuit, Missouri v. Biden, was brought by the states of Louisiana and Missouri against President Joe Biden's administration. The legal filing alleges that officials from the administration pressured Twitter, YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn to silence messages not in line with the government.
It further contends that both the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Health and Human Services overstepped their authority and violated the right to free speech. The federal government is eager to make this go away, but Judge Terry Doughty of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana rejected the motion to dismiss.
"The Court finds that the Complaint alleges significant encouragement and coercion that converts the otherwise private conduct of censorship on social media platforms into state action, and is unpersuaded by Defendants’ arguments to the contrary," Doughty wrote in his decision. “Further, while the Government may certainly select the messages it wishes to convey, this freedom is limited by the more fundamental principle that a government entity may not employ threats to limit the free speech of private citizens."
According to a report in the Washington Examiner, Republican Attorneys General Eric Schmitt of Missouri and Landry of Louisana are heading the lawsuit. In a statement, Schmitt alleged officials like "President Biden, Press Secretary Jen Psaki, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, and others" were at the forefront of stopping free speech.
They contend that "companies like Meta, Twitter, and Youtube" were directed "to remove truthful information related to the lab-leak theory, the efficacy of masks, election integrity, and more," Schmitt went on. "I will not stand idly by while the Biden Administration attempts to trample on the First Amendment rights of Missourians and Americans.," he added.
Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey's deeper dive highlighted the disturbing rationale the government used to counter the lawsuit. "Some notable moments from the first hearing in our First Amendment case, Missouri v. Biden: The federal government had a hard time convincing a judge last week that it hasn't been working with and coercing social media companies to censor free speech," Bailey tweeted on June 1.
"The judge asked the feds if they had ever read George Orwell’s 1984, pointing out the similarities between the case and the book," Bailey went on. "The Court asked the feds if all the emails between them and social media companies were real because 'it seems like there's a lot here,'" Bailey said. "The feds were forced to admit the tens of thousands of pages of evidence are genuine."
It appears there was an official government narrative on issues like the coronavirus pandemic, treatments related to it, the Hunter Biden laptop, and possible fraud in the 2020 presidential election. The most compelling evidence for this came from the so-called Twitter files.
After Tesla mogul Elon Musk purchased Twitter, he promised to release the behind-the-scenes actions of employees at the social media company, Fox News reported. What he revealed is in line with the assertions of this lawsuit.
The worst offenses came from officials from both former President Donald Trump and Biden administrations who leaned on top brass at Twitter to censor information related to COVID-19. In "meeting notes" with then-White House Chief Technology Officer Michael Kratsios, specific topics were listed as ones to watch.
That same memo claimed Facebook, Google, and Microsoft were also looped into "weekly" calls with Trump officials to identify "general trends" among their users. However, the most egregious abuses were committed over the COVID-19 vaccines.
Former FDA commissioner and Pfizer board member Dr. Scott Gottlie pressured Twitter to censor any chatter questioning the effectiveness or safety of the vaccines. He was even successful in getting Trump's official Dr. Brett Giroir permanently banned from the platform for valid skepticism.
It seems Big Tech was more than happy to censor discussions on behalf of the government. At the same time, the government must be held accountable for this gross misconduct or they will strip Americans of their freedoms whenever they see fit to do so -- no matter who is in the White House.
