Federal Judge Rules Biden Admin Acted Like “Orwellian Ministry of Truth” Using Big Tech To Censor Americans
(Steve Watson) A federal judge ruled Tuesday that the Biden administration acted like an “Orwellian Ministry Of Truth” By working in conjunction with big tech platforms to censor opinions it didn’t like during the Covid pandemic.
US District Judge Terry Doughty of Louisiana noted that the administration most likely violated the First Amendment as Republican attorneys general from Missouri and Louisiana “produced evidence of a massive effort by Defendants, from the White House to federal agencies, to suppress speech based on its content.”
Not only was Covid related content suppressed, but also questions regarding the results of the 2020 election, the Hunter Biden laptop story, and several other topics.
Sen. Eric Schmitt, former AG of Missouri, headed up the prosecution, describing the Biden administration’s actions as a “federal censorship enterprise.”
🚨BREAKING: A Federal Judge in Missouri v. Biden just granted a preliminary injunction prohibiting the FBI, DOJ, DHS & other agencies from working with Big Tech to censor on social media
— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) July 4, 2023
Big win for the First Amendment on this Independence Day🇺🇸
I’m proud to have led the fight. pic.twitter.com/59FzDVuI4f
“The censorship in this case almost exclusively targeted conservative speech,” Judge Doughty noted, but further emphasising that the censorship efforts go “beyond party lines.”
“The evidence produced thus far depicts an almost dystopian scenario,” Doughty wrote, adding “During the COVID-19 pandemic, a period perhaps best characterized by widespread doubt and uncertainty, the United States Government seems to have assumed a role similar to an Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth.’”
“Viewpoint discrimination is an especially egregious form of content discrimination,” Doughty further wrote, ruling “The government must abstain from regulating speech when the specific motivating ideology or the perspective of the speaker is the rationale for the restriction.”
Specifically pointing to officials within the Department of Health and Human Services and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the judge issued an injunction stating that they should be barred from communicating with social media companies for “the purpose of urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech.”
Doughty outlined that the only exceptions for Biden officials to have contact with social media companies would be over posts concerning “criminal activity or criminal conspiracies,” “national security threats, extortion, or other threats.”
The New York Times complained that the ruling “could curtail efforts to fight disinformation.”
Breaking News: A judge limited Biden administration officials from contacting social media sites, a ruling that could curtail efforts to fight disinformation.https://t.co/y9jmV0BU7d
— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 4, 2023
