Since its inception almost 250 years ago, the United States of America has prided itself on being a nation that allows free speech for every citizen, no matter what they believe in. Now, some are saying that the federal government has broken its promise to defend this amendment right by censoring posts on social media.
The case has made its way to the Supreme Court, and although the justices haven’t ruled yet, it seems they are likely to side with President Biden and the government’s right to censor on social media.
The Supreme Court case, known as Murthy v. Missouri, was first brought to the court’s attention at the start of Biden’s four years in the Oval Office.
The plaintiffs alleged that President Biden and his administration had coerced or strongly encouraged various social media platforms to take down posts that spread what they called false information about the 2020 presidential election and the COVID-19 pandemic. Thus violating the First Amendment’s right to free speech.
The first judge to preside over the case ruled that federal government officials had indeed violated the right to free speech and issued an injunction against the Biden administration.
However, that ruling was put on hold last year when the case made its way to the Supreme Court. Just last week, the Supreme Court finally heard the case, and while they won’t announce their decision for a few months, the released transcription makes it seem as though they will side with Biden and the White House.
The current Supreme Court Justices listened to almost two hours of arguments from the prosecutors who alleged that Biden and his administration used their influence to minimize conservative points of view on social media platforms.
Specifically, the prosecution explained that the FBI was calling sites such as Facebook and X (formerly Twitter) to strongly encourage them to remove certain posts.
When the subject of the FBI’s involvement in the removal of social media posts, which is commonly known as doxxing, was proposed, one justice spoke up to say that this unquestionably happens quite often.
Justice Amy Coney Barrett asked during the arguments, “Do you know how often the FBI makes those calls?” essentially suggesting that this is common practice within the organization.
One of the major arguments of the case was whether the prosecutors could prove that it was, in fact, the government that forced the removal of certain conservative posts or if it was the decision of the platforms themselves.
Sites such as Instagram, YouTube, X, and Facebook have what they call “community standards,” and if posts violate these standards, they will be removed by the moderators.
