DOJ settles lawsuit alleging Biden administration censored Americans online
The US Justice Department says it has settled a lawsuit that accused the Biden administration’s State Department of actively silencing and disfavoring speech by American citizens.
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The US Justice Department says it has settled a lawsuit that accused the Biden administration’s State Department of actively silencing and disfavoring speech by American citizens.
The lawsuit alleged that a now-closed office, the Global Engagement Center, helped support and fund private companies in developing technologies to downgrade, demonetize, and otherwise suppress protected speech online.
Examples of the content that plaintiffs alleged was suppressed, as listed in the lawsuit, include speech discussing COVID (such as its origin and the safety of vaccines), speech discussing election integrity (such as violations of state election laws and allegations of illegal or fraudulent voting), and speech discussing abortion, issues related to sexuality, or transgender ideology, and a variety of other topics of public interest.
This, according to plaintiffs, effectively violated the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.
The settlement implements Trump’s executive order, “Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship,” which accuses the previous administration of “trampling free speech rights by censoring Americans’ speech on online platforms” in the name of combating misinformation, disinformation, and malinformation.
“The weaponization of the Biden Administration against the American people who they disfavored is over,” said Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche. “This settlement is righting the historic wrong that they perpetrated against Americans, and today we say ‘never again’ will we tolerate these injustices.”
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Under the settlement, the State Department and its employees, contractors, and agents agree not to use technology to intentionally suppress or censor protected American speech and not to promote or fund programs or third-party tools that do so.
“The Department of Justice will continue vindicating Americans’ right to free speech,” said Assistant Attorney General Brett Shumate, of the Civil Division. “The Federal Government has no business promoting and funding tools to censor domestic media or citizens. This resolution ensures the unlawful practices at issue will not recur.”
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Some critics, such as Alex Abdo, litigation director of the Knight First Amendment Institute at Columbia University, have previously warned that Trump’s executive order could itself be used by the administration to engage in its own form of censorship by attempting “to rewrite history to suit its own agenda.”
Disinformation experts have also warned that the order could make the government hesitant to respond to false online claims, which could complicate efforts to counter misinformation, especially in times of emergencies or natural disasters, such as California wildfires.
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