[Official] Censorship from governmental actors thread

Pornhub Wins Free Speech Challenge to New Verification and Warning Laws
https://jonathanturley.org/2023/09/...allenge-to-new-verification-and-warning-laws/

 

5th Circuit finds Biden White House, CDC likely violated First Amendment
The three judge panel found that contacts with tech companies by officials from the White House, the surgeon general’s office, the CDC and the FBI likely amounted to coercion

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2023/09/08/5th-circuit-ruling-covid-content-moderation/

excerpt:

The judges wrote that the White House likely “coerced the platforms to make their moderation decisions by way of intimidating messages and threats of adverse consequences.” They also found the White House “significantly encouraged the platforms’ decisions by commandeering their decision-making processes, both in violation of the First Amendment.”

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The appeals court judges found that pressure from the White House and the CDC affected how social media platforms handled posts about covid-19 in 2021, as the Biden administration sought to encourage the public to obtain vaccinations.

The judges detail multiple emails and statements from White House officials that they say show escalating threats and pressure on the social media companies to address covid misinformation. The judges say that the officials “were not shy in their requests,” calling for posts to be removed “ASAP” and appearing “persistent and angry.” The judges detailed a particularly contentious period in July of 2021, which reached a boiling point when President Biden accused Facebook of “killing people.”

“We find, like the district court, that the officials’ communications — reading them in ‘context, not in isolation’ — were on-the-whole intimidating,” the judges wrote.

The judges also zeroed in on the FBI’s communications with tech platforms in the run-up to the 2020 elections, which included regular meetings with the tech companies. The judges wrote that the FBI’s activities were “not limited to purely foreign threats,” citing instances where the law enforcement agency “targeted” posts that originated inside the United States, including some that stated incorrect poll hours or mail-in voting procedures.

The judges said in their rulings that the platforms changed their policies based on the FBI briefings, citing updates to their terms of service about handling of hacked materials, following warnings of state-sponsored “hack and dump” operations.

The judges, however, found some of the government communications enjoined by the district court to be permissible, including those of former chief medical adviser to the president, Anthony S. Fauci. They said the record did not show that Fauci communicated directly with the platforms and said his efforts to promote the government’s scientific and policy views did not “run afoul of the First Amendment.”

They also found that the lower court erred in barring CISA’s interactions with the companies, finding that its efforts to flag content to the platforms did not amount to “attempts to coerce” the companies’ moderation decisions.
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more at the link

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US State Department funds censorship firms that favor left-wing media, NY Post on ‘risky’ list: lawsuit

https://nypost.com/2023/12/07/media...orship-firms-that-favor-left-wing-media-suit/