{"id":1998218,"date":"2023-08-11T18:02:02","date_gmt":"2023-08-11T22:02:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/judge-compares-biden-admins-social-media-censorship-to-mafia-style-tactics-as-biden-lawyers-claim-no-proof-of-coercion\/"},"modified":"2023-08-11T18:05:28","modified_gmt":"2023-08-11T22:05:28","slug":"judge-compares-biden-admins-social-media-censorship-to-mafia-style-tactics-as-biden-lawyers-claim-no-proof-of-coercion","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/judge-compares-biden-admins-social-media-censorship-to-mafia-style-tactics-as-biden-lawyers-claim-no-proof-of-coercion\/","title":{"rendered":"Judge likens Biden administration&#8217;s social media censorship to mafia tactics; Biden lawyers deny coercion evidence."},"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\">30<\/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%2Fjudge-compares-biden-admins-social-media-censorship-to-mafia-style-tactics-as-biden-lawyers-claim-no-proof-of-coercion%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=1998218&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 data-post-content=\"true\" class=\"post_content\" id=\"post_content\">\n<p><div class=\"group w-full text-token-text-primary border-b border-black\/10 dark:border-gray-900\/50 bg-gray-50 dark:bg-[#444654]\"><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"flex p-4 gap-4 text-base md:gap-6 md:max-w-2xl lg:max-w-[38rem] xl:max-w-3xl md:py-6 lg:px-0 m-auto\"><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"relative flex w-[calc(100%-50px)] flex-col gap-1 md:gap-3 lg:w-[calc(100%-115px)]\"><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"shortcode\">\n<div class=\"mb-4 mr-4 w-full max-w-[500px] border border-[#D3D3D3] px-5 py-4 text-[16px] leading-[20px] text-[#262626] md:float-left\">\n<div class=\"mb-3 font-sans text-[16px] font-semibold uppercase leading-[19px] text-[#2F2F2F]\">Related Stories<\/div>\n<div class=\"mb-4 flex gap-2\">\n<div class=\"grow\">\n<div class=\"mb-1 line-clamp-2\">\n            <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/world\/police-using-social-media-accounts-as-meta-begins-blocking-news-for-canadians-5454923\">Police Using Social Media Accounts as \u2064Meta Begins\u200c Blocking News for Canadians<\/a>\n          <\/div>\n<div class=\"text-[14px] leading-[18px] text-[#737373]\">8\/9\/2023<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"shrink-0 basis-[120px]\">\n          <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/world\/police-using-social-media-accounts-as-meta-begins-blocking-news-for-canadians-5454923\"><\/a>\n        <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"mb-4 flex gap-2\">\n<div class=\"grow\">\n<div class=\"mb-1 line-clamp-2\">\n            <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us\/missouri-ag-gears-up-to-fight-biden-admin-on-social-media-censorship-5452068\">Missouri AG \u200dGears Up\u200d to Fight Biden Admin on Social Media Censorship<\/a>\n          <\/div>\n<div class=\"text-[14px] leading-[18px] text-[#737373]\">8\/9\/2023<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"shrink-0 basis-[120px]\">\n          <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us\/missouri-ag-gears-up-to-fight-biden-admin-on-social-media-censorship-5452068\"><\/a>\n        <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"mb-4 flex gap-2\">\n<div class=\"grow\">\n<div class=\"mb-1 line-clamp-2\">\n            <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us\/elon-musk-takes-action-against-corporations-who-punish-employees-social-media-posts-5451370\">Elon Musk Takes Action Against Corporations\u200b That Punish \u2064Employees\u2019 Social Media Posts<\/a>\n          <\/div>\n<div class=\"text-[14px] leading-[18px] text-[#737373]\">8\/8\/2023<\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<div class=\"shrink-0 basis-[120px]\">\n          <a href=\"http:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us\/elon-musk-takes-action-against-corporations-who-punish-employees-social-media-posts-5451370\"><\/a>\n        <\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><div class=\"flex flex-grow flex-col gap-3\"><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"min-h-[20px] flex flex-col items-start gap-3 overflow-x-auto whitespace-pre-wrap break-words\"><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<p><div class=\"markdown prose w-full break-words dark:prose-invert light\"><\/div>\n<\/p>\n<div class=\"shortcode\">\n<div class=\"lazyload-wrapper\">\n<div class=\"lazyload-placeholder\"><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p>In Missouri&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/judge-to-allow-states-to-depose-fauci-biden-and-other-officials-in-social-media-censorship-case\/\" title=\"Judge to Allow States to Depose Fauci, Biden, and Other Officials in Social Media Censorship Case\">social media censorship case<\/a> \u200dagainst the Biden administration, President Joe Biden&#8217;s lawyers argued no solid proof of government coercion in content removal requests, while judges said the \u200cpressure reminded them of mafia-style tactics.<\/p>\n<p>The back-and-forth about whether the government&#8217;s actions were coercive\u2063 was one\u200c of several testy exchanges in\u2063 a New Orleans court on Aug. 10, where Judges\u2062 Edith Brown Clement, Jennifer Walker Elrod, and Don\u200d R. Willett of the U.S. 5th\u2064 Circuit Court of Appeals heard oral arguments in the case \u200bof the Missouri v. Biden over free\u200c speech, censorship, and government collusion.<\/p>\n<p>The case focuses on a First \u200cAmendment-based legal challenge \u2064to the Biden \u200cadministration\u2019s pressure campaign on social \u200cmedia platforms\u2063 to crack down on content\u2063 that ran afoul of the \u200dgovernment&#8217;s favored narrative on topics ranging \u2062from Hunter Biden&#8217;s laptop to COVID-19 vaccines\u200d to pandemic restrictions.<\/p>\n<p>A key issue at Thursday&#8217;s hearing was what has been described as a &#8220;historic&#8221; July 4 order (<a href=\"https:\/\/storage.courtlistener.com\/recap\/gov.uscourts.lawd.189520\/gov.uscourts.lawd.189520.294.0.pdf\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">pdf<\/a>) from U.S.\u200d District Judge\u200c Terry Doughty \u200cthat barred government agencies from contacting or working with big tech companies to censor posts on social media.<\/p>\n<p>The Justice Department appealed Judge Doughty&#8217;s injunction and won an administrative stay from the 5th Circuit \u200bCourt of Appeals, putting the Biden administration&#8217;s <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/judge-compares-biden-admins-social-media-censorship-to-mafia-style-tactics-as-biden-lawyers-claim-no-proof-of-coercion\/\" title=\"Judge likens Biden administration's social media censorship to mafia tactics; Biden lawyers deny coercion evidence.\">social media contact ban temporarily<\/a> on ice.<\/p>\n<p>On\u2064 Thursday, three circuit \u200djudges heard arguments from attorneys representing both sides, with the Biden lawyer&#8217;s insistence that the administration&#8217;s requests weren&#8217;t coercively leading\u2062 several judges to draw comparisons to organized crime tactics.<\/p>\n<h2>Broad and Vague<\/h2>\n<p>Justice Department attorney Daniel Tenny\u2063 argued that Judge Doughty&#8217;s social\u2062 media\u200b contact ban was too broad and vague, leading to confusion and undermining government efforts to coordinate with social media companies on legitimate issues like fighting crime such as child trafficking or mitigating risks to public \u2064safety \u2062during natural disasters.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Plaintiffs have \u2063urged,\u200c for example, \u200bthat if there were a natural disaster, and there were untrue statements \u2064circulating on social media that were damaging to the public interest, the government would be powerless under the injunction to discourage social media companies from further disseminating those incorrect statements,&#8221; Mr. Tenny said.<\/p>\n<p>Judge\u200d Elrod\u200c challenged him on this position, noting that \u200bJudge Doughty&#8217;s \u200border featured \u200ba carveout allowing \u2063federal agencies to interact with social media companies regarding\u200d such things as criminal\u2064 activity, national security \u2062threats, and criminal efforts to sway elections.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. Tenny responded by insisting\u2064 that the carveout \u200cin Judge Doughty&#8217;s\u2063 injunction is\u200d problematic as it \u200blacks specificity and that the plaintiffs contend that if it&#8217;s uncertain\u200d whether\u2062 conduct\u2064 is criminal, then it\u2062 should\u2064 not be covered by the\u2063 exception and is subject to the contact ban.<\/p>\n<p>Seeking clarification, Judge\u200b Elrod asked whether Mr. Tenny is arguing that Judge Doughty&#8217;s ban should be lifted and the government \u200bshould be allowed\u2062 to use &#8220;coercive&#8221; measures to pressure social \u2063media companies to take down or deamplify posts that may feature truthful information but that simply \u200c&#8221;didn&#8217;t fit its message.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;There&#8217;s a lot of COVID information in this record,&#8221; Judge Elrod said.<\/p>\n<p>While the judge didn&#8217;t go into\u2062 detail, documents obtained by the House \u200bJudiciary Committee and made public \u2062on July 27 <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theepochtimes.com\/us\/white-house-pressured-facebook-to-remove-covid-19-vaccine-meme-documents-show-5427216\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">show that<\/a> White \u200cHouse officials applied increasing pressure on Facebook to remove posts that supposedly \u2063contained \u2063content discouraging people from\u200b taking COVID-19 vaccines.<\/p>\n<p>In one \u2063case, the White House pushed for a humorous meme to be deleted, and when Facebook refused on the grounds\u200d that this request \u200bseemed\u200b to violate free speech norms, Andy Slavitt,\u2064 at\u200c the time a White House\u2063 health official, expressed &#8220;outrage&#8221; that the\u2064 post wasn&#8217;t taken down.<\/p>\n<p>Due to the growing pressure, Facebook began an effort to change its policies \u2062on supposed COVID-19 and vaccine misinformation to censor more content, according\u2064 to the messages released by the House Judiciary Committee.<\/p>\n<h2>Mafia-Like Tactics<\/h2>\n<p>Mr.\u200c Tenney argued that expressions of outrage or other strongly-worded requests never fell into the category\u2062 of coercion.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe sort \u2064of pressure we\u2019re talking about \u2062is, you know, relates to, the \u2062government is generically going to be angry. The government might make public statements against somebody,\u201d Mr. Tenny\u2062 said, arguing that such \u200dgestures aren\u2019t coercion.<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Facebook sometimes is willing to do \u2062what \u200bthe government wants and sometimes isn&#8217;t,&#8221; he said, adding that he believes the government was doing little more than forcefully articulating its position on various \u2063issues and pointing the way to a &#8220;good course\u2063 of conduct.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYes, that might influence people. People might want to get on the president\u2019s good side,&#8221; Mr. Tenney said, prompting Judge Elrod to interrupt and \u200csuggest that he&#8217;s downplaying\u2064 the government&#8217;s censorship requests.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cWhat appears to be in the\u2062 record are these irate messages from time to time, from <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/you-are-our-champion-novak-djokovic-gets-heros-welcome-in-serbia\/\" title=\"'You Are Our Champion': Novak Djokovic Gets Hero\u2019s Welcome in Serbia\">high-ranking government officials<\/a>, saying, \u2018You didn\u2019t do this yet\u2019\u2014and that\u2019s my toning down the language,\u201d Judge Elrod said, adding \u201cit\u2019s like \u2018Jump,\u2019 and \u2018How high?\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The judge\u2062 added that some of the exchanges contained in the record produced by the discovery process in \u2063the case from Judge Doughty&#8217;s court indicated that the dynamic between federal agencies and social media companies appeared to be that of\u2064 a &#8220;supervisor complaining about a worker.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>In one case from that record,\u200b Rob Flaherty, former deputy assistant to the president, wrote an email to Facebook on July 15, 2021, in which he demanded to know why the company wasn&#8217;t taking action to curb the spread of\u2064 some COVID-19 narratives.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAre you guys\u200d [expletive] serious?\u201d Mr. Flaherty wrote. \u201cI want an \u200danswer on what happened here, and I want it today.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Mr.\u2062 Tenny replied by saying that using &#8220;testy&#8221; language was not the same as making\u200d threats.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIf you were saying \u2018We\u2019re going\u200c to impose some penalty,\u2019 that\u2019s not the way you\u2019d go about it,\u201d \u2064Mr. Tenny \u200dsaid. \u201cYou wouldn\u2019t \u200bsay, \u2018I\u2019m really mad.\u2019 You\u2019d just say, \u2018Do this or \u200celse,\u2019 and the \u2018or else\u2019 would be \u2062clear.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>However, the judge challenged Mr. Tenny&#8217;s interpretation of the exchanges, resorting to what she called an &#8220;inept&#8221;\u2064 comparison to the world of organized crime, \u2062in which the threat of violence or other adverse consequences is often implied rather than put in explicit terms.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI\u2019m \u200ccertainly not equating the federal government with anybody in illegal organized crime,\u201d Judge Elrod said. \u201cBut there are certain relationships where people know, without always saying\u2062 \u2018or else.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n<h2>&#8216;Or\u2062 Else&#8217;<\/h2>\n<p>Mr. Tenney denied\u200b that the Biden administration&#8217;s position is that the government has to explicitly \u200dstate the\u200d &#8220;or else&#8221; \u200dfor its behavior to be deemed coercive.<\/p>\n<p>He insisted that\u2062 for the &#8220;coercive&#8221; label to be \u200ctrue, the threat of retaliatory action on the part of\u200c the government\u2062 has to be there at least &#8220;in the background.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>&#8220;Nobody has identified what the &#8216;or else&#8217; is, with two exceptions,&#8221; he continued, namely \u200bamendments to Section 230 of the \u2064Communications Decency Act and the other a reference to antitrust laws.<\/p>\n<p>However,\u2063 Mr. Tenney argued that the two exceptions never rose\u2063 to the level of a threat.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cNow, the idea that if you know,\u2062 if you don\u2019t do exactly what this White\u200b House staffer says about this particular thing, the president is unilaterally going to \u2063amend Section 230 or amend the antitrust laws is farfetched, \u200dand it is not\u2064 permissible for \u200dthe district court to make a factual finding that that\u2019s the case,\u201d Mr. Tenny said.<\/p>\n<p>Mr. \u200cTenny took aim at\u2064 Judge Doughty&#8217;s order\u2062 for having \u201cput in quotation marks words that \u200cthe press secretary \u200bdid not say at that press briefing.\u201d This appeared to be\u200d a reference to the order&#8217;s account of a May 5, 2021, news conference with then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAt a White House Press Conference, Psaki publicly reminded Facebook\u200d and other social media platforms of the threat of \u2018legal consequences\u2019 if they do not censor misinformation more aggressively,\u201d Judge Doughty wrote.<\/p>\n<p>While the words \u201clegal consequences\u201d don&#8217;t appear in the \u200b <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefing-room\/press-briefings\/2021\/05\/05\/press-briefing-by-press-secretary-jen-psaki-and-secretary-of-agriculture-tom-vilsack-may-5-2021\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">transcript<\/a> of that \u2063day&#8217;s White House news conference, Ms. Psaki seemed to hint at \u200cthe<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the Missouri social media censorship case, President Biden&#8217;s lawyers claim there is insufficient evidence of government coercion. Elon Musk fights back against corporations penalizing employees for their social media posts. Missouri AG prepares to battle the Biden administration on social media censorship. Meta begins blocking news for Canadians.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":118,"featured_media":1998219,"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":[543],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1998218","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-the-epoch-times"],"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\/1998218","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\/118"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1998218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1998218\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1998219"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1998218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1998218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1998218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}