{"id":1750131,"date":"2022-11-24T06:06:14","date_gmt":"2022-11-24T11:06:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1750131"},"modified":"2022-11-24T07:03:08","modified_gmt":"2022-11-24T12:03:08","slug":"biden-admin-says-its-pressure-on-social-media-companies-wasnt-coercive","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/biden-admin-says-its-pressure-on-social-media-companies-wasnt-coercive\/","title":{"rendered":"Biden Admin Says Its Pressure on Social Media Companies Wasn\u2019t Coercive"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">22<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fbiden-admin-says-its-pressure-on-social-media-companies-wasnt-coercive%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=1750131&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>The government\u2019s pressure campaign on big tech companies to censor users, including the claim that Facebook was \u201ckilling people\u201d by not cracking down enough on purported misinformation, was not coercive, Biden administration lawyers argued in a new motion.<\/p>\n<p>Even if government officials \u201curged\u00a0social media companies do more to contain misinformation, any content moderation decisions made by social media companies ultimately \u2018rested with\u2019 those companies,\u201d the lawyers said <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/23317120-motion-to-dismiss-censorship-case\">in the Nov. 22 filing<\/a>, which asks a judge to toss the high-profile case that accuses the government and big tech firms of colluding to censor users in violation of the First Amendment.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven emphatic requests or strongly worded urging,\u00a0<em>see \u2026<\/em> (President Biden saying failing to take action against misinformation results in \u2018killing people\u2019),\u00a0do not plausibly amount to coercion,\u201d the lawyers added.<\/p>\n<p>Hundreds of messages between government officials and big tech workers <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/over-50-biden-administration-employees-12-us-agencies-involved-in-social-media-censorship-push-documents_4704349.html\">were made public<\/a> through discovery in the case, which <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/2-gop-led-states-sue-biden-administration-for-pressuring-and-colluding-with-big-tech-to-censor-free-speech_4449673.html\">was brought by<\/a> the attorneys general of Louisiana and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/t-missouri\">Missouri<\/a> and later <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/great-barrington-declaration-authors-join-lawsuit-against-alleged-government-big-tech-collusion_4640259.html\">joined by<\/a> users who were censored by one or more platforms.<\/p>\n<p>The messages showed Facebook and other companies repeatedly communicating with officials about taking down posts and banning users over misinformation.<\/p>\n<p>In one message, a Facebook worker said that the company had taken steps against the so-called \u201cdisinfo dozen,\u201d or a group of users who were identified by a nonprofit as being responsible for much of the alleged false and misleading social media content regarding COVID-19.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe hear your call for us to do more and, as I said on the call, we\u2019re committed to working toward our shared goal of helping America get on top of this pandemic,\u201d the worker said, speaking to\u00a0Department of Health and Human Services officials after a meeting.<\/p>\n<p>In another missive, White House official Rob Flaherty pressured Facebook\u00a0to take action against \u201cmis- and -disinformation\u201d and \u201chesitancy-inducing content.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, meanwhile, flagged specific posts that it said should be taken down.<\/p>\n<p>The documents show clear collusion, a lawyer involved in the case <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/new-documents-show-clear-big-tech-government-collusion-lawyer_4707120.html\">told The Epoch Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s clear that the government was telling Facebook and Twitter and other social media companies what to do and that they were responding and they were doing that, deleting accounts, taking down posts, etc., which really corroborates our state action theory,\u201d the lawyer, Jenin Younes, said.<\/p>\n<p>The White House and other parts of the government also publicly said that big tech companies should take more action against alleged false and misleading information.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWe\u2019re flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation,\u201d Jen Psaki, the then-White House press secretary, said during a 2021 briefing, adding that the administration was advising big tech companies to \u201ccreate a robust enforcement strategy\u201d and to \u201ctake faster action against harmful posts.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The evidence the plaintiffs presented, including the discovery documents, led to the judge overseeing the case <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/judge-orders-fauci-psaki-top-officials-be-deposed-in-big-tech-censorship-case_4813336.html\">approving the depositions of eight officials<\/a> believed to be or confirmed to be part of the pressure campaign.<\/p>\n<p>Dr. Anthony Fauci, President Joe Biden\u2019s chief medical adviser, was scheduled to be deposed on Nov. 23.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_4731388\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/dr-anthony-fauci-1200x800-1.jpg\" rel=\"attachment wp-att-4731388\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"lazy size-large wp-image-4731388\" src=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/assets\/themes\/eet\/images\/white.png\" data-src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/dr-anthony-fauci-1200x800-1.jpg\" alt=\"Epoch Times Photo\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" \/><figcaption class=\"wp-caption-text\"><noscript><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-large wp-image-4731388\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/11\/dr-anthony-fauci-1200x800-1.jpg\" alt=\"Epoch Times Photo\" width=\"640\" height=\"427\" \/><\/noscript><\/figcaption><\/a> Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institutes of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, testifies during a Senate hearing in Washington on Sept. 14, 2022. (Drew Angerer\/Getty Images)<\/figure>\n<h2>Inadequate<\/h2>\n<p>In the motion to dismiss, filed nearly two months after the latest amended complaint, government lawyers said the evidence was inadequate to prove First Amendment violations.<\/p>\n<p>The email correspondence produced in discovery \u201cunderscores that the various Defendants\u2019 statements to social media companies that Plaintiffs challenge here are far short of being \u2018coercive,&#8217;\u201d they said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIndeed, the statements in those e-mails illustrate that, rather than compelling a social media company to take specific action against particular content, government employees provided information or made recommendations that the\u00a0companies, as private entities, could take into consideration and respond to as they deemed appropriate,\u201d they added.<\/p>\n<p>The complaint does not plausibly allege that the government was behind any specific action that the big tech companies took, the motion also stated.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNo Defendant is alleged to have dictated that a particular social media company take any particular content moderation measure with respect to any Plaintiff or resident of a Plaintiff State,\u201d the government lawyers said.<\/p>\n<p>Officials have repeatedly made clear that social media companies are ultimately responsible for defining misinformation and choosing how to address it, according to the motion. One example was Surgeon General Vivek Murthy saying in the \u201cconfronting health misinformation\u201d document (<a href=\"https:\/\/www.hhs.gov\/sites\/default\/files\/surgeon-general-misinformation-advisory.pdf\">pdf<\/a>) that \u201cany definition\u201d of misinformation \u201chas limitations\u201d and that \u201cit is important to be careful and avoid conflating controversial or unorthodox claims with misinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The complaint does offer instances \u201cin which some officials strongly implored social media companies to take greater action against misinformation on their platform,\u201d the government acknowledged. \u201cBut even strong urgings, using heated rhetoric, are fundamentally distinct from actions that \u2018dictate the decision,\u2019 or so \u2018significant[ly] encourage[],\u2019 a social media company to take <em>specific<\/em> action against <em>specific<\/em> content that the company\u2019s action must be\u00a0attributed to the Government.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Even if the court rejects the motion to dismiss, it should remove Biden as a defendant because the judiciary generally cannot second-guess presidential decisions, the government said.<\/p>\n<div class=\"author_wrapper\">\n<div class=\"one_author_block round\">\n<div class=\"top_row\">\n\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/author-zachary-stieber\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2022\/10\/WEB_ZacharyStieber-1.jpg\" alt=\"Zachary Stieber\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Follow<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p>Zachary Stieber covers U.S. and world news for The Epoch Times. He is based in Maryland.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The government\u2019s pressure campaign on big tech companies to censor users, including the claim that Facebook was \u201ckilling people\u201d by not cracking down enough on purported misinformation, was not coercive,<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1749289,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[547],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1750131","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-bongino-report"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cndimages.nyc3.digitaloceanspaces.com\/breaking-news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/01\/IMG_2758-scaled-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750131","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1750131"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1750131\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1749289"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1750131"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1750131"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1750131"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}