Federal judge accuses Biden admin of resembling Orwell's Ministry of Truth in censorship controversy
On Tuesday, a federal judge declared that the actions of the Biden administration resembled an "Orwellian Ministry of Truth" as it collaborated with prominent tech platforms to suppress dissenting viewpoints throughout the COVID-19 crisis.
According to US District Judge Terry Doughty of Louisiana, the Biden administration likely contravened the First Amendment, as indicated by Republican attorneys general from Missouri and Louisiana “produced evidence of a massive effort by Defendants, from the White House to federal agencies, to suppress speech based on its content," Summit News reports.
In addition to the suppression of COVID-related content, there were also attempts to stifle discussions on topics such as the 2020 election results, the Hunter Biden laptop story, and various other subjects.
Senator Eric Schmitt, the former Attorney General of Missouri, led the prosecution and characterized the actions of the Biden administration as a "federal censorship enterprise."
White House officials, CDC & others are stopped cold. We need to continue the fight to take down the Vast Censorship Enterprise.
— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) July 4, 2023
Their view of “misinformation” isn’t an excuse to censor. This is the most important free speech case in a generation.
Freedom is on the march
“The censorship in this case almost exclusively targeted conservative speech,” Judge Doughty stated, further noting that the censorship efforts go “beyond party lines.”
“The evidence produced thus far depicts an almost dystopian scenario,” Doughty stated. “During the COVID-19 pandemic, a period perhaps best characterized by widespread doubt and uncertainty, the United States Government seems to have assumed a role similar to an Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth.’”
“Viewpoint discrimination is an especially egregious form of content discrimination,” Doughty further wrote, ruling “The government must abstain from regulating speech when the specific motivating ideology or the perspective of the speaker is the rationale for the restriction.”
Citing specific individuals within the Department of Health and Human Services and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the judge issued a restraining order that explicitly prohibited them from engaging with social media companies for “the purpose of urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech.”
Doughty clarified that Biden officials would only be permitted to engage with social media companies in exceptional cases involving posts related to “criminal activity or criminal conspiracies,” “national security threats, extortion, or other threats.”
The New York Times bemoaned that the ruling “could curtail efforts to fight disinformation.”
Breaking News: A judge limited Biden administration officials from contacting social media sites, a ruling that could curtail efforts to fight disinformation.https://t.co/y9jmV0BU7d
— The New York Times (@nytimes) July 4, 2023
Ian Miles Cheong
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Ian Miles Cheong is a freelance writer, graphic designer, journalist and videographer. He’s kind of a big deal on Twitter.
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