Global Courant
The UK’s online safety law, which aims to regulate the internet, has been revised to remove a controversial but critical measure.
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A U.S. federal judge on Tuesday prohibited certain agencies and officials in President Joe Biden’s administration from meeting and communicating with social media companies to moderate their content, according to a court filing.
The order came in response to a lawsuit filed by Republican attorneys general in Louisiana and Missouri, who claimed US government officials went too far in trying to encourage social media companies to post posts they feared could contribute to hesitation with vaccines during the COVID-19 pandemic. or overthrow elections.
The ruling says that government agencies such as the Department of Health and Human Services and the FBI should not talk to social media companies “for the purpose of urging, encouraging, coercing or in any way inciting to remove, remove, suppress or reduce content. with protected freedom of speech” under the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.
A White House official said the Justice Department is reviewing the order and will evaluate options.
The order is also mentioned by name by officials, including Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas and Jen Easterly, who heads the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, in its restrictions.
Judge Terry Doughty, in an order filed with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, made some exceptions for communications between government officials and the companies, including to warn of risks to national security and criminal activity.
The order was first reported by the Washington Post.
Tuesday’s order marks a victory for Republicans who sued the Biden administration, saying they used the coronavirus health crisis and the threat of misinformation as an excuse to curb views that disagreed with the administration .
US officials have said they wanted to suppress misinformation about COVID vaccines to curb preventable deaths.
Facebook and Instagram older Meta platformsTwitter and Alphabet YouTube did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
