A federal judge in Louisiana today issued a preliminary injunction that will limit how agencies in the Biden administration can contact social media companies, a ruling that may well shape the future of free speech in the U.S.

U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty of Louisiana made the ruling in response to a 2022 lawsuit brought by attorneys general in Louisiana and Missouri. Their lawsuit accused the government of overreach in its efforts to have such companies censor posts related to the COVID-19 pandemic and stifle free speech in general.

Doughty said that though the lawsuit was brought by Republicans who feel social media companies have censored them more than Democrats, this issue is about “free speech in the United States” and “goes beyond party lines.” The plaintiffs argued that censorship occurred relating to many matters, including COVID vaccines, the efficacy of masks and lockdowns and the lab-leak theory, but also matters relating to the U.S. economy, President Biden and his son’s now-infamous laptop.

Many of the allegations in the lawsuit concern the so-called Twitter Files, in which journalists discovered that various government agencies had interacted with Twitter to suppress their points of view, at least in some analyses. They allege that some of the posts and posters whose speech was suppressed and labeled misinformation were scientific opinions.

The 155-page memorandum lists scores of incidences in which it seems free speech was suppressed, regardless of whether it came from professionals talking about ongoing unresolved issues. The lawsuit included an additional four plaintiffs who said they were censored, including Jayanta Bhattacharya and Martin Kulldorff, epidemiologists who co-authored the Great Barrington Declaration – a tract that questioned lockdowns and the handling of the pandemic in general.

Both men say they were censored during the pandemic despite being world-renowned scientists. Whether their views were correct is still a matter of debate, but both have argued that they shouldn’t have been shut down by social media in collusion with the government.

Doughty said there is “substantial evidence” of a censorship campaign, going as far as to call this campaign a “dystopian scenario.” He said that though the COVID-19 pandemic was “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.’”

“What a way to celebrate Independence Day,” tweeted Andrew Bailey, the Missouri Attorney General who brought the lawsuit. Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, his co-plaintiff, said the injunction should stop the Biden administration “from censoring the core political speech of ordinary Americans.”

The New York Times doesn’t see it that way, writing that the injunction will “curtail efforts to combat false and misleading narratives about the coronavirus pandemic and other issues.” The Times spoke to an unnamed White House official who said, “Our consistent view remains that social media platforms have a critical responsibility to take account of the effects their platforms are having on the American people, but make independent choices about the information they present.”

Photo: Lamessen/Flickr