Plaintiffs in a case charging that the Biden administration was deeply involved in censoring users across Big Tech platforms are preparing to ask a judge to allow them to depose top government officials.
The Republican attorneys general of Missouri and Louisiana said on Oct. 10 that they will file a motion soon asking U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty,a Trump appointee overseeing the case, for the depositions.
The plaintiffs have provided an initial list of people they want to depose to the Department of Justice, which is representing the government in the case. They said the motion will ask Doughty to greenlight depositions of a number of key defendants, according to a statement fromMissouri Attorney General Eric Schmitts office.
A spokesman for Schmitt, who brought the case with Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry, declined to provide more details.
The most well-known defendants are President Joe Biden, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy, Health Secretary Xavier Becerra, presidential adviser Dr. Anthony Fauci, and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.
The case was filed earlier this year, and discovery produced after Doughty rejected the administrations attempt to get the case dismissed bolstered the evidence of Big Techgovernment collusion, including a series of exchanges between White House and Facebook officials concerning cracking down on users who posted alleged misinformation about COVID-19 vaccines.
While 20 officials or agencies were named as defendants in an earlier version of the case, an updated complaint filed on Oct. 6identified 47 more, including the FBI, the Food and Drug Administration, and Rob Flaherty, a White House deputy assistant.
Messages showed Flaherty pressuring Facebook workers to step up content moderation, leading to meetings between Facebook and the White House.
We remain concerned about mis -and -disinformation [sic] on feed and in groups, and the wide reach of hesitancy-inducing content across your platform, Flaherty wrote in one message to a Facebook employee, whose name was redacted.
Additionally, Facebook began steering regular reports to Flaherty and other White House officials outlining how many posts were deleted, labeled, or demoted for violating COVID-19 and vaccine policies.
Missouri and Louisiana filed a landmark lawsuit, seeking to expose that the federal government has worked hand-in-hand with social media companies to censor freedom of speech on their platforms. Our lawsuit has done exactly thatweve found a staggering censorship enterprise that extends to a multitude of federal agencies and implicates government officials at the highest levels of government, but were not done yet, Schmitt said in a statement.
Now, weve added 47 additional defendants to our lawsuit, including several FBI agents and more top-ranking White House officials. Were also asking the Court to allow our offices to take depositions to question these officials under oath. Were only just getting started.
Follow
Zachary Stieber covers U.S. and world news for The Epoch Times. He is based in Maryland.
Visit link:
- Geologists raise concerns over possible censorship and bias in Chinese chatbot - The Guardian - June 26th, 2024
- Cancelling Kehinde Wiley shows 'does a disservice to the audiences', anti-censorship group claims - Art Newspaper - June 26th, 2024
- John Olivers UK Election Roast Escapes Censor; Sky To Stream Last Week Tonight Episode Online - Deadline - June 26th, 2024
- Only the most neutral titles - Meduza - June 26th, 2024
- ACLU and ACLU of South Carolina Sound Alarm on Sweeping New Book Ban Law - ACLU of South Carolina - June 26th, 2024
- A Small-Town Texas Librarian's Big Stand Against Book Bans - The Texas Observer - June 26th, 2024
- Trump, Censorship, and Abortion: Key SCOTUS Rulings Anticipated This Week - WLS - June 26th, 2024
- Adjust privacy settings in Microsoft Edge - Microsoft Support - June 10th, 2024
- Use voice typing to talk instead of type on your PC - June 10th, 2024
- Transcribe your recordings - Microsoft Support - June 10th, 2024
- Israel's Military Censor Seems to Be Protecting Netanyahu, Not National Security - Opinion - Haaretz - June 10th, 2024
- Teacher Li: The hunt for the cartoon cat vexing China's censors - BBC.com - June 10th, 2024
- Librarians Celebrate Comics in the Face of Censorship - Publishers Weekly - June 10th, 2024
- The balancing act of censorship The Mirror - The Mirror - June 10th, 2024
- Boundaries of Expression podcast: Tiananmen Square and 35 years of censorship - ARTICLE 19 - ARTICLE 19 - June 10th, 2024
- 35 years on, Tiananmen memory eroded by Chinese censorship and Sino-U.S. rivalry - The Japan Times - June 10th, 2024
- Censorship - Suppression, Expression, Liberty | Britannica - June 2nd, 2024
- Stanford, Silicon Valley, and the Rise of the Censorship Industrial Complex - RealClearInvestigations - June 2nd, 2024
- Censorship Definition & Meaning | Britannica Dictionary - June 2nd, 2024
- The Classic X-Men: The Animated Series Moment Only Allowed ONCE by Censors - CBR - June 2nd, 2024
- Tom Gauld on censorship cartoon | Books - The Guardian - June 2nd, 2024
- Heres how Congress can help stop backdoor government censorship - The Hill - June 2nd, 2024
- Teen Defies Censorship: hands over a copy of Handmaid's Tale at Grad - Good e-Reader - June 2nd, 2024
- Israel's growing media censorship of the Gaza war - The New Arab - June 2nd, 2024
- Jay Leno says censorship cant change comedy: If its really funny, all bets are off - Fox News - June 2nd, 2024
- A Colombian Song, Garca Mrquez Idolatry And The Sins Of Censorship - Worldcrunch - June 2nd, 2024
- Book bans are hellish weapons of censorship and false narrative building - The Mirror - June 2nd, 2024
- Educators have 'serious concerns' over bill that OEA says will censor books in schools - WFMJ - June 2nd, 2024
- Censorship - The New York Times - May 15th, 2024
- Americas unseen book bans: the long history of censorship in prisons - The Guardian US - May 15th, 2024
- The TikTok ban is censorship and should not be celebrated - Kykernel.com - May 15th, 2024
- Stellar Blade studio head says outfit redesigns were intentional, not censorship: "Just because the costumes are vulgar ... - Gamesradar - May 15th, 2024
- Fizz bug temporarily censors some terms related to Israel-Gaza war - The Stanford Daily - May 15th, 2024
- What's Wrong With PEN America, and Why We Need It To Survive - Literary Hub - May 15th, 2024
- Book Censorship: What Are the Reasons Behind It? - The Portugal News - May 15th, 2024
- Censorship And The Crisis Of Bourgeois Legitimacy - Countercurrents.org - May 15th, 2024
- New Hampshire donut censorship and the 'speech police': Local bakery sues over ruling that student-painted mural ... - Fortune - April 11th, 2024
- ACLU of Michigan tracking book bans and censorship in the state - WNEM - April 11th, 2024
- The Foreign Policy Blob Has Launched a 'War on Wrongthink' - Daily Signal - April 11th, 2024
- Meta is accused of censoring a non-profit newspaper and an independent journalist who criticized the company - CNN - April 11th, 2024
- Opinion | Conversations and insights about the moment. - The New York Times - April 11th, 2024
- Unveiling the unseen: Confronting book bans and educational censorship - The Justice - April 11th, 2024
- Will 'Monkey Man' Even Be Released in India? An Uphill Battle with Censors Awaits Opinion - IndieWire - April 11th, 2024
- Elon Musk threatens to out top Brazil judge as alleged traitor - Fortune - April 11th, 2024
- We have reached the limit. Clash with Elon Musk prompts calls for social media controls in Brazil - CNN - April 11th, 2024
- RFK Jr.s demons, and the bogus beef about Bidens censorship | Moran - NJ.com - April 11th, 2024
- Index on Censorship appoints Jemimah Steinfeld as its new Chief Executive Officer - Index on Censorship - April 11th, 2024
- Philadelphia Court Reinstates Israeli Film Screening Amid Accusations of Censorship and Backlash - Hoodline - April 11th, 2024
- Elon Finally Finds A Government He's Willing To Stand Up To: When The Censorship Demands Target His Political Allies - Techdirt - April 11th, 2024
- ALA Releases Top 10 Most Challenged Books of 2023 - Publishers Weekly - April 11th, 2024
- X-Men: The Animated Series was defined by its censors - Polygon - March 21st, 2024
- Why is the Biden administration reviving one of Trump's worst censorship policies? - Slate - March 21st, 2024
- The Beginning of the End for the Censorship-Industrial Complex? - National Review - March 21st, 2024
- The censorship industry and it's connection to Israel - Cleveland Jewish News - March 21st, 2024
- RFK: I dont think the government should be involved in social media, accuses Biden of censorship - The Hill - March 21st, 2024
- IntelBrief: Implications of China-Russia Cooperation on Censorship and Disinformation - The Soufan Center - March 21st, 2024
- How Trump's Allies Are Winning the War Over Disinformation - The New York Times - March 21st, 2024
- Banning TikTok is just the first step to censorship - Point Park Globe - March 21st, 2024
- Justices appear to side with government on social media censorship - Fox News - March 21st, 2024
- #973 The Musk of Censorship - Canadaland - March 21st, 2024
- Elon Musk calls X number one source of news in the worldand also a hardcore, player versus player platform - Fortune - March 21st, 2024
- RFK Jr.: Government shouldnt have role in social media moderation - NewsNation Now - March 21st, 2024
- Censorship and the Digital Public Square - RealClearPolitics - March 21st, 2024
- Supreme Court Weighs Limits of First Amendment in NRA and Tech Censorship Cases Amid 'Ministry of Truth' Fears - The New York Sun - March 21st, 2024
- Judge Jeanine: This censorship case will be huge - Fox News - March 21st, 2024
- Parler's New Owners Swear This Time Will Be Different - WIRED - March 21st, 2024
- SCOTUS to hear case alleging federal government censorship - KSDK.com - March 21st, 2024
- EFF Opposes California Initiative That Would Cause Mass Censorship - EFF - February 25th, 2024
- Quote of the Day: Fifteen Months Later, Despite 50 Alterations and Deletions, Censors Have Yet to Approve This Film. - China Digital Times - February 25th, 2024
- X disagrees with Centres censorship orders, calls for greater transparency - The Indian Express - February 25th, 2024
- How Bad Is Academic Censorship, Really? - The Chronicle of Higher Education - February 25th, 2024
- Social Media Users say their Palestine Content is being Shadow-Banned -- How to Know if it's Happening to You - Informed Comment - February 25th, 2024
- The blatant censorship of the 2023 Hugo Awards - Observer Online - February 25th, 2024
- Censorship for minors is not the solution | Opinion - PantherNOW - February 25th, 2024
- Zimbabwe Army Accused of Forcing Investigative Outlet to Self-Censor - Voice of America - VOA News - February 25th, 2024
- The Library of Translations: An exploration of censorship and desensitization in We Had To Remove This Post - The Student Life - February 25th, 2024
- The Kids Online Safety Act will censor student journalists - Freedom of the Press Foundation - February 25th, 2024
- Librarians could be criminally charged over 'obscene' books in West Virginia bill - ABC News - February 25th, 2024
- Meet the modern-day censors, wielding their purse-strings over artists and their work - The Guardian - February 25th, 2024
- Bills clarify that parental notice not meant to censor books - Richmond Times-Dispatch - February 25th, 2024