A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction in the case of Missouri v. Biden on July 4, instructing U.S. government agencies to stop telling social media companies to censor, block, demote, or promote content. That injunction was paused on July 14 by the Fifth Circuit, three of whose judges heard arguments on Aug. 10 on the issue of the injunction. The arguments offered before the court reveal aspects of the censorship in which government officials are eager to engage.
Department of Justice lawyer Daniel Tenny told the three-judge panel how he defined “coercive": “Coercive is where a reasonable person would construe it to be backed by a threat of government action against a party if it didn’t comply.” But that’s exactly what happened! As just one example, former U.K. Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, who has now taken up his duties to the British Crown through his position at Meta, told his bosses, Mark Zuckerberg and Sherry Sandberg: “We are facing continued pressure from external stakeholders, including the White House and the press, to remove more Covid-19 vaccine discouraging content.” Apparently there was a “humorous meme” that the White House particularly disapproved of, and “they called on us to delete the meme,” said Clegg.
