U.S. Supreme Court Justice Alito Extends Block on Biden Administration’s Social Media Content Removal
(Reuters) – U.S. Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito has extended a temporary block on an order that limits the ability of President Joe Biden’s administration to encourage social media platforms to remove content deemed as misinformation about COVID-19 and other public concerns. The decision comes as the court requires additional time to consider the administration’s request to block an injunction issued by a lower court. The lower court had determined that federal officials likely violated the free speech protections of the First Amendment by pressuring social media platforms to censor specific posts.
Justice Alito’s order will place a hold on the dispute until Wednesday, September 27 at 11:59 p.m. EDT. This follows his previous decision to halt the lower court’s ruling through September 22. Alito, designated by the court to handle matters from states including Louisiana, where the lawsuit was initially filed, has been tasked with this case.
The lawsuit was brought forth by Republican attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana, along with a group of social media users. They accused federal officials of unlawfully assisting in the suppression of constitutionally protected conservative speech on major social media platforms, including Meta’s Facebook, Alphabet’s YouTube, and X (formerly called Twitter). Many of the posts flagged by federal officials expressed opinions that were labeled as misinformation about the pandemic.
The Biden administration has argued that their actions were legal, aiming to address the dangers of online misinformation by alerting social media companies to content violating their own policies.
In July, U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty of Louisiana concluded that government officials had coerced the companies into suppressing posts that expressed views against COVID-19 vaccines, pandemic-related lockdowns, or questioned the 2020 election results. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans later narrowed the injunction issued by Doughty, including only a provision related to coercion, which still applied to the White House, the surgeon general, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and the FBI.
The Biden administration appealed to the Supreme Court, stating that the remaining injunction was still overly restrictive and would hinder the ability of the White House, FBI, and health officials to address matters of public concern and security.
(Reporting by Andrew Chung and Nate Raymond; Editing by Aurora Ellis and Chris Reese)
Credit: The Star : Tech Feed
