Court Orders Biden Admin To Show Records Over Alleged Censorship Coordination With Big Tech

A court ordered the Biden administration to turn over records in a lawsuit that alleges censorship coordination with social media companies.

Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt announced the following on Tuesday:

“In our lawsuit against the Biden Admin for colluding with social media companies to censor speech, the Court just ordered DOJ to produce records from key WH & HHS officials like Dr. [Anthony] Fauci, the WH Press Secretary [Karine Jean-Pierre], and other.”

U.S. District Judge Terry A. Dought says the “Court believes Plaintiffs are entitled to external communications by Karine Jean-Pierre and Dr. [Anthony] Fauci in their capacities as White House Press Secretary and Chief Medical Advisor to the President to third-party social media platforms.”

“Therefore, Government Defendants Jean-Pierre and Dr. Fauci shall provide answers to the Plaintiff’s interrogatories and document requests within twenty-one (21) days from the date of this order,” Doughty adds.

Over the past month, published messages have shown members of the Biden administration colluding with social media services to censor or remove critics.

Former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson obtained internal communications that reveal Biden’s aides held meetings with Twitter staffers in which the White House demanded Twitter remove Berenson.

Twitter permanently suspended Berenson — before reinstating him following a lawsuit — shortly after.

Last week, state attorney generals obtained emails that show other officials of the Biden administration holding monthly calls with Facebook to discuss content to censor. 

Specifically, a Biden official asked a Meta executive to take down a Dr. Fauci parody account on Instagram. Meta agreed as the account is no longer active. 

And some instances aren’t all that secretive. In August 2021, then-press secretary Jen Psaki announced that the White House identified “problematic” posts for Facebook to censor, which included posts skeptical of mRNA vaccines.

Facebook said it removed over 20 million pieces of COVID “misinformation” about six weeks later.

Schmitt posted screenshots of more messages between the Biden admin and social media executives:

A senior FB official sent an email to the Surgeon General stating, “I know our teams met today to better understand the scope of what the White House expects from us on misinformation going forward.” This email chain follows the SG’s “misinformation health advisory” in July 2021. pic.twitter.com/PeqglHalRI

— Attorney General Eric Schmitt (@AGEricSchmitt) September 1, 2022

The same senior official sent a later email to HHS and noted, "Thanks again for taking the time to meet earlier today." Then, the official continued to discuss how Facebook is taking even more steps to censor freedom of speech
-> https://t.co/twdQNM2OuZ pic.twitter.com/kww0aUkwTe

— Attorney General Eric Schmitt (@AGEricSchmitt) September 1, 2022

Free speech rights do not apply to private companies, such as Twitter and Facebook. Thus courts have been reluctant to allow lawsuits arguing a violation of free speech rights to proceed without direct evidence of government involvement. 

But what we have here is that direct evidence. These messages show social media platforms acting at the behest of the government.

So the Wall Street Journal argues a private company can be sued as a “state actor” if it suppresses free speech rights in collusion with the White House.

The First Amendment prevents the government from censoring citizens. Yet Twitter and Meta have provided the government with a workaround. In other words, they have worked as state actors.

There’s definitive, visual proof of censorship coordination between the Biden administration and social media companies.