Post by t-bob on Jul 6, 2023 21:17:09 GMT -5
: A federal judge in Louisiana on Tuesday imposed temporary limits on how members of President Biden’s administration can engage with social media companies in their efforts to curb and correct lies and disinformation posted on the web.
The case stems from an effort by conservatives to block what they contend is a liberal conspiracy by Democrats and tech company executives to silence their views.
The Administration has been staying in touch with social media companies, particularly Facebook, in an effort to stem misinformation and conspiratorial posts about vaccines, the origins of Covid, and the 2020 election.
The order by Judge Terry Doughty, a Trump appointee who himself has expressed skepticism about vaccines, posed the question of whether the government violated the First Amendment by unlawfully threatening social media companies to censor speech about the Biden administration and its policies.
Doughty, for instance, ruled against a Biden administration vaccine mandate for Head Start preschool programs, saying that the “liberty interests of individuals mandated to take the Covid-19 vaccine outweigh any interest generated by the mandatory administration of vaccines.”
His current order regarding the government and social media has enormous implications for free speech.
Rooney Reports excerpts 7/6/23
The case stems from an effort by conservatives to block what they contend is a liberal conspiracy by Democrats and tech company executives to silence their views.
The Administration has been staying in touch with social media companies, particularly Facebook, in an effort to stem misinformation and conspiratorial posts about vaccines, the origins of Covid, and the 2020 election.
The order by Judge Terry Doughty, a Trump appointee who himself has expressed skepticism about vaccines, posed the question of whether the government violated the First Amendment by unlawfully threatening social media companies to censor speech about the Biden administration and its policies.
Doughty, for instance, ruled against a Biden administration vaccine mandate for Head Start preschool programs, saying that the “liberty interests of individuals mandated to take the Covid-19 vaccine outweigh any interest generated by the mandatory administration of vaccines.”
His current order regarding the government and social media has enormous implications for free speech.
Rooney Reports excerpts 7/6/23