A federal district court judge recently ordered President Joe Biden, members of his administration, and certain social media companies to comply with information requests within the next 30 days as part of the discovery phase of a “freedom of speech” lawsuit initiated by the States of Louisiana and Missouri.
Attorneys general from the two states claim that the Biden administration colluded with or coerced Meta, Twitter, and YouTube to suppress “disfavored speakers, viewpoints, and content on social media platforms,” according to The Center Square.
Eric Schmitt, Missouri’s state attorney general, stated on July 12, following the district judge’s ruling:
“In May, Missouri and Louisiana filed a landmark lawsuit against top-ranking Biden Administration officials for allegedly colluding with social media giants to suppress freedom of speech on a number of topics including the origins of COVID-19, the efficacy of masks, and election integrity. Today, the Court granted our motion for discovery, paving the way for my office to gather important documents to get to the bottom of that alleged collusion. This is a huge development.”
The following day, Schmitt tweeted, “Government can’t outsource its censorship to Big Tech.”
The heart of the lawsuit is the accusation that social media companies are labeling content as “misinformation” or “disinformation” because they are being pressured to do so by the now defunct Disinformation Governance Board, organized under the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS).
The lawsuit claims that the “Disinformation Governance Board” was established by the DHS “to induce, label, and pressure the censorship of disfavored content, viewpoints, and speakers on social-media platforms.”
It did so, according to the two states, along with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, and in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act.
For its part, the Biden administration contends that Louisiana and Missouri lack the legal standing to sue the federal government in this case and that the two states have not proven that they have suffered any “injury” warranting litigation.