{"id":1997953,"date":"2023-08-11T14:42:02","date_gmt":"2023-08-11T18:42:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/judges-excoriate-biden-admin-for-strong-arming-tech-companies-like-the-mob-to-censor-users\/"},"modified":"2023-08-11T14:46:16","modified_gmt":"2023-08-11T18:46:16","slug":"judges-excoriate-biden-admin-for-strong-arming-tech-companies-like-the-mob-to-censor-users","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/judges-excoriate-biden-admin-for-strong-arming-tech-companies-like-the-mob-to-censor-users\/","title":{"rendered":"Judges criticize Biden Admin for pressuring tech companies to censor users, likening it to mob tactics."},"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\">32<\/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%2Fjudges-excoriate-biden-admin-for-strong-arming-tech-companies-like-the-mob-to-censor-users%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=1997953&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--><div class=\"article-content\">\n<p>Judges overseeing Missouri and Louisiana\u2019s <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/tag\/missouri-v-biden\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">lawsuit<\/a> against the federal government\u2063 for its collusion \u2064with Big Tech platforms blasted the Biden administration during court proceedings on Thursday for using mob-like tactics to\u200d pressure said companies into censoring free \u2064speech online.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIn these movies that we see\u2064 with the mob \u2026 they don\u2019t say and spell out \u200dthings, but they\u2062 have these ongoing relationships,\u201d <\/p>\n<h3>Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod<\/h3>\n<p> <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2023\/08\/10\/judge-censorship-case-compares-biden-admin-relationship-big-tech-mob\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said<\/a>. \u201cThey never actually say \u2018go do this \u200bor else you\u2019re \u2064going to have this consequence.\u2019 \u200bBut everybody just knows.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2-long d-flex justify-content-center\" style=\"margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center; \" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-1068222893\">\n<div id=\"div-gpt-ad-1379703300879-0\" class=\"mb-30\"><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-bc592bdf93c25a3431fa3d5b836db3c2 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-2\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-bc592bdf93c25a3431fa3d5b836db3c2\"><\/div>\n<p>Held in the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals,\u200d Thursday\u2019s hearing\u200c was to consider oral arguments in the \u2062Biden administration\u2019s appeal \u200dof a <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/07\/05\/judge-bars-biden-administration-from-colluding-with-big-tech-to-censor-free-speech\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">July 4 injunction<\/a> put in place by \u2062District Judge Terry Doughty that prohibited the federal government \u200bfrom \u2062working \u200bwith Big Tech platforms to \u200bcensor what they claim to be \u201cdisinformation\u201d online. In \u2064his <a href=\"https:\/\/www.documentcloud.org\/documents\/23867004-08917380420?responsive=1&#038;title=1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">155-page memorandum \u2063ruling<\/a>,\u200b Doughty noted \u2062how \u201cthe \u200bevidence\u200c produced [by Missouri and Louisiana] \u200dthus far depicts\u2062 an almost dystopian scenario\u201d\u2064 and predicted the states\u2019 \u200dsuit will succeed \u201con the merits in establishing that the Government has used its power to\u200b silence the \u2064opposition\u201d on topics such as\u2063 Covid-19, lockdowns, vaccines, and\u2064 more.<\/p>\n<p>Doughty <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/07\/10\/federal-judge-who-awarded-big-free-speech-win-in-missouri-v-biden-denies-biden-regimes-motion-to-stay\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">separately denied<\/a> a \u2064motion to \u2064stay filed by \u200cthe Biden administration a day after the\u2063 July 4\u2063 ruling.<\/p>\n<p>In comparing the Biden administration\u2019s tactics of pressuring Big\u200d Tech platforms to censor free speech to those employed\u2062 by the \u2063mob, Elrod specified she\u2019s\u200c \u201ccertainly\u2062 not equating the federal \u2064government with anybody in illegal organized crime,\u201d \u200cbut \u2064noted \u201cthere are certain relationships that people\u2062 know things\u200d without always saying the \u2018or else.&#8217;\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat appears to be \u200cin the \u200brecord are these irate messages from \u2062time \u2063to time from high-ranking\u200c government\u2063 officials that say,\u2062 \u2018You\u200c didn\u2019t do this yet!\u2019 \u2014 and that\u2019s my\u200d toning down the language \u2014 \u2018Why\u2064 haven\u2019t you done this yet?\u2019\u201d she <a href=\"https:\/\/dailycaller.com\/2023\/08\/10\/judge-censorship-case-compares-biden-admin-relationship-big-tech-mob\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said<\/a>. \u201cIt\u2019s like \u2018jump\u2019 \u2063and \u2018how high?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-0946f7d03a1094d352ffba612d3a30a0 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-6\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-0946f7d03a1094d352ffba612d3a30a0\"><\/div>\n<p>Judge Don Willett expressed similar views when\u200d describing how he views the federal government\u2019s \u201cunsubtle strong-arming and veiled or not-so-veiled threats\u201d \u2064to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/judges-excoriate-biden-admin-for-strong-arming-tech-companies-like-the-mob-to-censor-users\/\" title=\"Judges criticize Biden Admin for pressuring tech companies to censor users, likening it to mob tactics.\">influence social media companies\u2019 content moderation policies<\/a>. In summarizing government officials\u2019 tone in their \u2062messages to Big\u2064 Tech employees, Willett\u200d <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stltoday.com\/news\/local\/government-politics\/missouri-v-biden-court-weighs-curbs-on-administration-s-social-media-contacts\/article_4c05b47a-3767-11ee-a2e2-8f0634a03b81.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">said<\/a>, \u201cThat\u2019s a really nice social \u2064media platform you got there \u2014 it would be a shame if something happened to it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>As The Federalist\u200c previously <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/09\/01\/bombshell-emails-show-the-biden-administration-colluded-with-big-tech-to-censor-covid-misinformation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reported<\/a>, communications obtained by the \u2063state governments \u2064of Missouri and Louisiana show extensive coordination\u200d between the Biden administration and \u200bBig Tech companies such as Facebook \u2063and X, formerly known as Twitter, to squash what they claimed was\u200d \u201cdis-\u201d or\u2063 \u201cmisinformation,\u201d particularly posts regarding Covid. A July \u20632021 \u200demail from a senior Facebook representative to U.S. \u200cSurgeon General Vivek Murthy, for instance, reveals how\u200d Biden administration officials and the Big Tech company met \u201cto better understand the \u200cscope of what the White House expects \u2062from [Facebook] on misinformation going forward.\u201d\u2064 <\/p>\n<p>The email \u200dwas sent a \u2063day after Murthy published an <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hhs.gov\/about\/news\/2021\/07\/15\/us-surgeon-general-issues-advisory-during-covid-19-vaccination-push-warning-american.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">advisory<\/a> warning against the \u201cthreat of health misinformation\u201d and calling on \u201ctech and social \u200dmedia companies\u201d to \u201cdo more\u200b to \u200caddress the \u2062spread on their platforms.\u201d<\/p>\n<figure class=\"wp-block-embed is-type-rich is-provider-twitter wp-block-embed-twitter\">\n<div class=\"wp-block-embed__wrapper\"> <span class=\"pgxCAjMe27Khb9dyLmYXR8ch7sHqrkz6Vi2kTcOq9SJoiaJpMf5QA4mjdvVGCTQnW0tt\"><\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"500\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">Today&#8217;s oral argument in Missouri v. Biden proved \u200dwhat we&#8217;ve known \u2064all along: the Biden Administration\u2062 has\u2063 shamelessly and relentlessly \u200ccoerced and colluded with <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/the-new-acting-attorney-general-jeff-rosen-recently-wrote-an-essay-on-foreign-influence-in-us-elections-this-tells-us-a-little-about-his-knowledge-of-whats-going-on-today\/\" title=\"The New Acting Attorney General Jeff Rosen Recently Wrote an Essay on Foreign Influence in US Elections \u2013 This Tells Us A Little About His Knowledge of What\u2019s Going On Today\">social media platforms<\/a> to\u2064 censor free speech,<\/p>\n<p>Some highlights \u2063from the hearing:<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 Attorney General Andrew Bailey (@AGAndrewBailey) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/AGAndrewBailey\/status\/1689736792243650567?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">August 10, 2023<\/a><\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p><script async src=\"https:\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\" charset=\"utf-8\"><\/script><\/span> <\/div>\n<\/figure>\n<p>According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.stltoday.com\/news\/local\/government-politics\/missouri-v-biden-court-weighs-curbs-on-administration-s-social-media-contacts\/article_4c05b47a-3767-11ee-a2e2-8f0634a03b81.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">St. Louis Post-Dispatch<\/a>, \u2063Daniel\u200b Tenny, a Department of Justice lawyer, attempted to downplay the government\u2019s censorship \u200cactivities, arguing \u201cThe notion that the social media companies felt they had to bend to the FBI\u2019s \u200dwill when \u200dhalf the time \u200dthey didn\u2019t \u2014 it doesn\u2019t \u200bfit any of these theories.\u201d \u200cJohn \u200dSauer, Louisiana\u2019s special assistant attorney\u2064 general, pushed back on such sentiments and also raised the FBI\u2019s role in Big Tech\u2019s censoring of the infamous Hunter Biden laptop story.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-da082b811868a7513215380b87c30c70 fdrlst__b89e9-paragraph-10\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-da082b811868a7513215380b87c30c70\"><\/div>\n<p>For context, after\u2063 the\u2064 New York Post dropped its <a href=\"https:\/\/nypost.com\/2020\/10\/14\/email-reveals-how-hunter-biden-introduced-ukrainian-biz-man-to-dad\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">bombshell report<\/a> sourced \u200bfrom Hunter \u200cBiden\u2019s laptop weeks before the 2020\u2064 contest, platforms such as X and Facebook went out of their way to censor the story and prevent its reach. On <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/12\/03\/twitter-files-confirm-big-tech-leftists-suppressed-hunter-biden-laptop-story-ahead-of-2020-election\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">X<\/a>, users were not \u2064permitted to share the \u2062story, even via direct message. The platform further removed links and issued alerts that it may be \u201cunsafe.\u201d Meanwhile, Facebook <a href=\"https:\/\/thefdrlst.wpengine.com\/2020\/10\/14\/facebook-is-now-officially-censoring-the-new-york-posts-hunter-biden-bombshell\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">announced<\/a> shortly after the story broke that\u200d it would be \u201creducing [the story\u2019s<a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/fbi-knew-hunter-bidens-laptop-was-authentic-a-year-before-pressuring-big-tech-to-censor-it\/\" title=\"FBI confirmed Hunter Biden's laptop authenticity a year prior to pressuring Big Tech for censorship.\">] distribution\u201d pending verification<\/a> \u200cby third-party \u201cfact-checkers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Heavily \u200dinvolved in these \u2063companies\u2019 suppression of the\u2062 story was the FBI, which had <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2023\/06\/22\/fbi-knew-hunter-bidens-laptop-was-authentic-a-year-before-pressuring-big-tech-to-censor-it\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">authenticated<\/a> the laptop as early as November \u200d2019 but nonetheless warned Twitter and Facebook\u2064 to be on\u2063 the lookout for \u200d\u201cRussian propaganda\u201d and \u201chack-and-leak\u2064 operations\u201d by state actors in the months leading up to the election. Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg\u00a0later\u2063 <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2022\/08\/26\/confirmed-fbi-colluded-with-big-tech-to-prevent-voters-from-learning-about-hunter-bidens-laptop\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">admitted<\/a> during\u200b a Joe Rogan podcast interview last year\u200c that Facebook\u2019s\u200d decision to suppress the story was based on the FBI\u2019s warning.<\/p>\n<p>The FBI \u201cknew that it wasn\u2019t Russian disinformation, and then, having primed the platforms\u200b to expect it as a \u200bhack-and-dump \u2063operation would \u2064actually hit, then they said, \u2018Is this Russian disinformation?\u2019 \u2062 [The FBI] said, \u2018No comment,&#8217;\u201d \u200dSauer <a href=\"https:\/\/www.washingtonexaminer.com\/news\/justice\/fbi-engaged-in-deception-hunter-biden-laptop\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">recounted<\/a>. Doughty\u2019s court \u201cfound that was a \u2064deliberately \u2063misleading course of deception.\u201d<\/p>\n<div class=\"fdrlst__b89e9-248cdb5d8c9248590bfb0ffcf2029be3 fdrlst__b89e9-after-post-content\" id=\"fdrlst__b89e9-248cdb5d8c9248590bfb0ffcf2029be3\"><\/div>\n<hr class=\"wp-block-separator\">    \t\t\t\t\t   \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Judges in Missouri and Louisiana&#8217;s lawsuit against the federal government criticized the Biden administration in court for employing mob-like tactics to coerce Big Tech platforms into censoring online free speech. They compared the situation to movies where the mob doesn&#8217;t explicitly state their intentions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":539,"featured_media":1997954,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","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":[546],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1997953","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-federalist"],"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\/1997953","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\/539"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1997953"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1997953\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1997954"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1997953"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1997953"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1997953"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}