Biden To Censor Social Media Companies, Supreme Court Rules: “Today’s Decision Is Highly Disturbing”

Jo ShawNov 3, 2023

Minute Read

The Supreme Court has recently ruled that they would decide on a dispute regarding whether officials in the White House and federal agencies violated the First Amendment Right of free speech. Biden’s Administration is accused of pressuring social media companies to restrict content related to the election and COVID-19.

Temporary Halt on Prior Ruling

The Supreme Court’s decision has temporarily halted a prior ruling from a federal appeals court that had significantly restricted these governmental interventions.

White House Administration Can Contact Social Media Companies.

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The ruling allows the Biden administration to continue to contact social media channels, such as YouTube, Facebook and X (Twitter), to request that they remove disinformation.

Decision to Be Made by Social Media Companies

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The Biden administration has responded to opposition claims of First Amendment violations by asserting that officials simply requested social media platforms to take down harmful disinformation. Ultimately, it was the companies themselves, not the government, that decided to remove the content.

Content Moderated by Social Media

The Administration further added to their argument, “It is undisputed that the content-moderation decisions at issue in this case were made by private social-media companies, such as Facebook and YouTube.”

Plaintiffs Say Platforms Urged to Act Against Free Speech

However, plaintiffs in the case had argued that “When…federal agencies ‘flag’ Americans’ speech to social media platforms to urge them to take it down, they induce platforms to take action against private speech that the platforms otherwise would not take.”

Supreme Court Temporary Blocks Lower Court Decision

In summary, most justices have decided to temporarily suspend the lower court’s order, which had forbidden federal agencies from reaching out to social media companies, such as Facebook, to request the removal or limitation of disseminating social media posts.

Conservative Justices Side With States

On the other hand, the conservative faction of the court, comprising of Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Neil Gorsuch, was against the Supreme Court’s ruling, indicating their support for the states and social media users who initiated the lawsuit.

The Decision Is “Highly Disturbing.”

Conservative Justice Samuel Alito wrote in a dissent, “Government censorship of private speech is antithetical to our democratic form of government, and therefore today’s decision is highly disturbing,”

Missouri v. Biden “A Victory for Republicans”

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Terry Doughty, a Judge previously appointed by Trump, had ruled back in July that the Biden administration had probably breached First Amendment rights by restricting negative views and aspects of the COVID pandemic and vaccines on social media platforms. This led to restrictions on the Administration’s communication with social media companies.

Mitigate Hazards of Online Information

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In response, the officials of the Biden Administration argued that they only “sought to mitigate the hazards of online misinformation” by “calling attention to content.” The decision was declared by The New York Times “A Victory for Republicans.”

Trump Previously Argued Bleach Cures COVID-19

Trump, when acting as President, had encouraged some of his health officials to look into injecting bleach into the body as a cure for COVID-19. “We tested bleach,” Trump said during the Press Conference, further stating that “bleach will kill the virus in five minutes.”

A Huge Win for the Right to Speak Freely

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Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, a Republican, stated the previous ruling by Doherty as “a huge win for the right to freely speak without government censorship” and further said he would continue to lead the “ fight to defend our most fundamental freedoms.”

Trump Regularly Cites Violation of First Amendment Rights

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Trump has repeatedly complained his First Amendment rights of free speech have been violated, and his lawyers continue to argue the case for him throughout his many trials and latest gag orders.

Trump Derangement Syndrome

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Roger Parloff, a senior editor for Lawfare, flagged a post from Trump on Twitter, explaining Trump’s recent gag order only protected witnesses and not the Judge herself in the case. Trump’s post read, “The Obama Appointed Federal Judge in D.C., A TRUE TRUMP HATER, is incapable of giving me a fair trial. Her Hatred of President Donald. J. Trump is so great that she has been diagnosed with a major and incurable case of TRUMP DERANGEMENT SYNDROME.”

Right Wing Hate Speech or Government Censorship?

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The Judge ruled that Trump’s gag order was reinstated despite an appeal. Trump posted to the ruling, “The Corrupt Biden Administration just took away my First Amendment Right To Free Speech.”

Is Biden’s Administration Being Wrongly Accused?

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While free speech is a fundamental right for all, should hate speech or disinformation be allowed to persist unchecked? And who, if not the social media companies themselves, should have the authority to encourage these posts to be removed?

Punishing Websites Would Violate Free Speech

In a debate online on whether the White House administration violated free speech, one online user posted, “Not sure how it’s a violation. Punishing websites would be a violation. Asking to take stuff down that is dangerous misinformation isn’t.”

Disinformation Is Harmful

Another raised the point that some content is harmful: “So we should let disinformation dominate the media and harm more people?”

All Points Should Be Heard.

“This is amazing!! The White House having direct control over social media censorship is a massive violation. They were pulling down a lot of disinformation but they were also pulling down a lot of valid points. The whole point in freedom of speech is that all points should be heard,” posted another.