Two Republican state attorneys general filed a new lawsuit contending that Big Tech and President Joe Biden’s administration have colluded to suppress legitimate news under the ruse of stifling “misinformation.”
Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry announced Friday that they were suing Meta (Facebook), Twitter, YouTube, and others for their work to “censor and suppress free speech, including truthful information.” Usually doing o at the beck and call of Biden and his team.
The examples they offered included Hunter Biden’s laptop story, the lab-leak theory of the origin of COVID-19, and disputes about the effectiveness of masks, which the officials noted, led to Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis being “censored” by YouTube. They also noted the administration’s approval of a crackdown by Spotify of podcaster Joe Rogan.
The lawsuit asserts that Biden, White House spokeswoman Jen Pskai, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, Dr. Anthony Fauci, and officials at the Department of Homeland Security, including Nina Jankowicz, the executive director of the new DHS Disinformation Governance Board. “Jankowicz,” the lawsuit says, “has called for more aggressive censorship of election-related speech by social-media platforms, and has implied that social-media censorship of election-related speech should never relent or be reduced.”
In return, social media companies have publicly admitted to working hand in hand with the government to crack down on “misinformation,” which almost always refers to opinions or information favored by conservatives.
“Freedom of speech is paramount to a healthy society and discourse, debate, and discussion have been the cornerstone of our country since the Founders codified that right in the Bill of Rights. In direct contravention to the First Amendment and freedom of speech, the Biden Administration has been engaged in a pernicious campaign to both pressure social media giants to censor and suppress speech and work directly with those platforms to achieve that censorship in a misguided and Orwellian campaign against ‘misinformation,’” Schmitt said in a statement.
“We allege that government officials in the Biden Administration, including President Biden, Press Secretary Jen Psaki, Dr. Anthony Fauci, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, and others colluded with social media companies like Meta, Twitter, and Youtube to remove truthful information related to the lab-leak theory, the efficacy of masks, election integrity, and more. I will not stand idly by while the Biden Administration attempts to trample on the First Amendment rights of Missourians and Americans.”
In his statement, Landry added, “Big Tech has become an extension of Biden’s Big Government, and neither are protecting the freedoms of Americans; rather, they are suppressing truth and demonizing those who think differently.”
“Ripped from the playbook of Stalin and his ilk, Biden has been colluding with Big Tech to censor free speech and propagandize the masses. We are fighting back to ensure the rule of law and prevent the government from unconstitutional banning, chilling, and stifling of speech.”
According to their press release, the lawsuit maintains that the federal government violated the First Amendment rights of Missourians and Louisianans – and by extension, all Americans – by colluding with social media companies to censor and suppress freedom of speech.
“Defendants have coerced, threatened, and pressured social-media platforms to censor disfavored speakers and viewpoints by using threats of adverse government action,” the lawsuit itself says.
“Defendants are now directly colluding with social-media platforms to censor disfavored speakers and viewpoints, including by pressuring them to censor certain content and speakers, and ‘flagging’ disfavored content and speakers for censorship. These actions violate the First Amendment.”
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