Reports indicate social media suppressed first-person stories.
QUICK FACTS:
- The attorneys general for Missouri and Louisiana have asked the court to compel the Department of Justice to produce communications between officials and social media platforms.
- The joint statement from Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry requested that discovery disputes be addressed by the court in their case against Biden administration officials.
- Missouri and Louisiana have taken administration officials in the White House, Department of State and Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) to court over censorship of the speech of individuals using social media platforms.
- The case was filed months ago and alleges that administration officials colluded with social media companies to censor speech of individuals on COVID-19, among other topics.
- Some of the documents related to the suit reportedly indicate that the administration pushed for users to be targeted for sharing first-person experiences involving controversial issues.
PORTION OF THE ATTORNEYS GENERAL STATEMENT:
- “Missouri and Louisiana filed a landmark lawsuit back in May that seeks to expose how top Biden Administration officials allegedly colluded with social media companies to censor freedom of speech on a number of topics, including COVID-19. We won in court in July, and the Court required the Biden Administration to turn over communications between federal officials and social media companies,” said Attorney General Schmitt.
- “We have already received a number of documents that clearly prove that the federal government has an incestuous relationship with social media companies and clearly coordinate to censor freedom of speech, but we’re not done,” Schmitt’s statement went on. “The Department of Justice is cowering behind executive privilege and has refused to turn over communications between the highest-ranking Biden Administration officials and social media companies. That’s why, yesterday, we asked the Court to compel the Department of Justice to produce those records.”
- “Meta, for example, has disclosed that at least 32 federal officials—including senior officials at the FDA, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, and the White House—have communicated with Meta about content moderation on its platforms, many of whom were not disclosed in response to Plaintiffs’ interrogatories to Defendants. YouTube disclosed eleven federal officials engaged in such communications, including officials at the Census Bureau and the White House, many of whom were also not disclosed by Defendants.”
- The statement requesting discovery went on to say, “The discovery provided so far demonstrates that this Censorship Enterprise is extremely broad, including officials in the White House, HHS, DHS, CISA, the CDC, NIAID, and the Office of the Surgeon General; and evidently other agencies as well, such as the Census Bureau, the FDA, the FBI, the State Department, the Treasury Department, and the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. And it rises to the highest levels of the U.S. Government, including numerous White House officials. Defendants have objected to producing some of the most relevant and probative information in their possession.”
BACKGROUND:
- The states filed their suit against administration officials for “allegedly colluding with Social Media Giants” and censoring speech on controversial issues in May of this year.
- Missouri’s attorney general specifically targeted potential First Amendment violations in the initial suit.
- The suit named officials including President Joe Biden himself, Press Secretary Jen Psaki, Chief Medical Advisor to the President Anthony Fauci, and the CDC itself.
