Biden appeals decision banning contact with social networks – 7/5/2023 – World

The US government on Wednesday appealed a federal court ruling that barred White House officials and government agencies from contacting social media companies to request content moderation in cases of misinformation. The sentence represents a victory for Republicans who accuse President Joe Biden’s administration of censorship.

The ruling came in response to a lawsuit filed by Republican attorneys in Louisiana and Missouri. They claim public officials have gone too far in efforts to get companies to tackle misinformation about the pandemic and the election. The argument is echoed by right-wing protesters, who accuse the government of using sensitive topics to remove content.

The decision states that government officials and agencies cannot contact social media companies to “urge, encourage, pressure or induce the removal, deletion, suppression or reduction of content”. As a justification, he mentions the freedom of expression clause of the First Amendment to the US Constitution.

The targets of the measure are the US departments of State, Justice and Health, in addition to the FBI, the US federal police, among others. Officials working in security sectors, including Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency Chief Jen Easterly were also named in the order.

The ruling, officials say, could significantly limit the reach of government agencies to notify platforms of problematic, false or misleading content.

While critics of Joe Biden claim that the removal of content in the pandemic hit publications that disagreed with the government, American officials refute the politically motivated accusations and say that the measures were intended to contain misinformation about immunizers against Covid.

On social media, Eric Schmitt, former Missouri attorney general and one of the authors of the lawsuit, celebrated the court’s decision and said the sentence represents a victory for freedom of expression.

Experts, however, are critical of the verdict. “The court order in this case is very broad, certainly,” said Jameel Jaffer, director of the Knight Institute at Columbia University. “[A decisão] protects platforms not only from coercion but also from criticism.”

The sentence makes exceptions for communication between government officials and social media companies on topics that put national security at risk, in addition to monitoring criminal activities. Twitter, YouTube and Meta, which owns Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp, did not respond to requests for comment by the Reuters news agency.