GOP: Biden Violated First Amendment By Pressing Big Tech On Covid Misinfo
© David A. Lieb/AP Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, who is suing the Biden administration for forcing social media companies to violate the First Amendment, was one of the witnesses Wednesday at a hearing on the issue "Anti-Social Covid".House Republicans on Wednesday used hearings on the US government's coronavirus policy to draw attention to a lawsuit accusing the Biden administration of using social media to censor Americans' speeches and thus against the Violating the First Amendment.
"The Biden administration has armed big tech companies with violence to end the debate in the name of science," said Rep. Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio), who chairs the House subcommittee on the coronavirus pandemic. He said efforts to "censor speech" would require a response from Congress, though he didn't specify what that might be.
At the hearing, there was testimony from Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey (r.), who along with his Louisiana counterpart had filed a federal lawsuit to prevent the White House from working with tech companies like Google and Meta to expand communications capabilities of Americans on social media. . A Trump-appointed federal judge in Louisiana has allowed the case to proceed, citing the possibility of another Supreme Court battle over online speech.
These scientists have analyzed the lies spread by Trump. Now the Republican Party wants answers.The hearing and trial are part of a years-long political battle over what Americans can and cannot say on social media and who can decide. As social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook and Twitter work to remove or restrict posts they deem offensive or harmful, conservatives have rebuffed, saying the effort reflects conservative views and undermines free speech in the US.
During Donald Trump's presidency, the right turned its anger against the tech companies themselves, claiming they were biased against conservatives. So far, however, courts have generally ruled that online platforms, as private companies, have their own First Amendment rights to decide what to publish and what not. The First Amendment protects Americans from government censorship, not the editorial choices of media companies.
Meanwhile, Democrats, including President Biden, have often criticized the tech giants for not doing enough to stop the spread of hate speech, conspiracy theories or misinformation on their platforms. In July 2021, Biden accused Facebook of "killing people" by spreading lies about coronavirus vaccines. (He later retracted that comment.)
With Biden as president, Republicans have taken a new stance, suggesting that decisions by social media companies are controlled, or at least influenced, by the White House. Eventually, if tech companies can show they're restricting free speech at the behest of the government, a court could find them violating the First Amendment.
Thus , in Missouri v. What they argue in the Biden case. In that case, a Trump-appointed federal judge allowed plaintiffs to collect thousands of messages between Biden administration officials and social media companies to look for evidence that the government had forced the companies to remove posts in who have expressed opposing views on the coronavirus and vaccines. , elections and other sensitive issues.
Judge Terry Doughty heard hearings in the case last month and is expected to soon rule on the states' request for an injunction restricting the Biden administration's communications with technology companies.
During Wednesday's session of the House of Representatives, Missouri's Bailey found Republicans open to her comments while Democrats expressed skepticism.
Among the evidence supporting Bailey was an April 2021 email from Rob Flaherty, the White House chief digital strategist, to Google officials brings to question corona vaccines". That concern, he added, "is shared at the highest (and I mean the highest) level [in the White House]."
Flaherty in his email called for a "good faith dialogue" between the White House and Google, including bi-weekly meetings, as the administration sought to counter some Americans' reluctance to get the vaccine it felt was needed to contain the pandemic.
The legal issue is whether these statements and pressure escalated to the level of government coercion and were consistent with the federal government's right to express opinions about the pandemic and disinformation.
Another witness at Wednesday's hearing, Micah Schwartzman, a law professor at the University of Virginia, said he has yet to see conclusive evidence of government coercion and called the censorship allegations "uncorroborated allegations."
Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) MP agrees and says the government has a right to fight misinformation, especially misinformation that can lead to deaths during a pandemic, and get its information out to the people. He said false social media claims about coronavirus vaccines prevented deaths, adding that he initially fell for the misinformation that coronavirus vaccines altered people's DNA.
Jeff Kosseff, an online speech expert and author of "Liar in a Crowded Theater: Free Speech in a World of Disinformation," said via email that the case law on this type of censorship proxy request is mixed and confusing. Unsolved
"On the one hand, the government can (and should) be able to respond to private statements," Koseff said. "But it crosses the line when a platform receives formal or informal pressure to block constitutionally protected speech."
While the hearings focused on the response to the coronavirus, including whether various government orders violate Americans' right to religious gatherings, Bailey argued that the social media companies' coronavirus misinformation policies are a "Trojan horse" for the government was to carry out "comprehensive censorship". . "
But Rep. Jamie B. Raskin (D-Med.) countered that Republicans accuse the Biden administration of influencing social media content policies and that her party is slowing down its efforts to pass legislation banning books and teachers strengthened. Talk to students about slavery and Jim Crow.
"The real state censorship in America comes from the right," Ruskin said.
