US Supreme Court blocks order curbing Biden administration social media contacts
By Andrew Chung
(Reuters) -The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday lifted restrictions imposed by lower courts on the ability of President Joe Biden's administration to encourage social media companies to remove content deemed misinformation, including about elections and COVID-19.
The justices granted the administration's request to put on hold a preliminary injunction constraining how White House and certain other federal officials communicate with social media platforms. The justices also agreed to hear arguments to decide the merits of the administration's appeal of the rulings by the lower courts.
Conservative Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch publicly dissented from the decision to pause the injunction pending the Supreme Court's review.
The Republican attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana and a group of social media users sued federal officials, accusing them of unlawfully helping suppress conservative-leaning speech on major social medial platforms, such as Meta's Facebook (NASDAQ:META), Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOGL)'s YouTube and X, formerly called Twitter.
Lower courts found that administration officials likely coerced the companies into censoring certain posts, in violation of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment free speech protections.
The case represents one of numerous legal battles underway pitting free speech against content moderation on the internet. Many liberals have warned of the dangers of social media platforms amplifying misinformation and disinformation about public health, vaccines and election fraud. Many conservatives have accused these platforms of censoring their views.
The Biden administration has argued that officials did nothing illegal and had sought to mitigate
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