This past Tuesday evening, Eric Schmitt, the Missouri Attorney General, stated that the joint lawsuit with Louisiana put forward by his state against the Biden administration about alleged censorship coordination taking place with various social media companies found its first major win this past week as the administration was ordered by the court to hand over all of their records from key officials.
“In our lawsuit against the Biden Admin for colluding with social media companies to censor speech, the Court just ordered DOJ to produce records from key WH & HHS officials like Dr. [Anthony] Fauci, the WH Press Secretary [Karine Jean-Pierre], and others,” exclaimed Schmitt in a social media post.
đ¨BREAKING: In our lawsuit against the Biden Admin for colluding with social media companies to censor speech, the Court just ordered DOJ to produce records from key WH & HHS officials like Dr. Fauci, the WH Press Secretary, and others.
— Eric Schmitt (@Eric_Schmitt) September 6, 2022
“This Court believes Plaintiffs are entitled to external communications by Karine Jean-Pierre and Dr. [Anthony] Fauci in their capacities as White House Press Secretary and Chief Medical Advisor to the President to third-party social media platforms,” explained U.S. District Judge Terry A. Doughty as part of his ruling. “Therefore, Government Defendants Jean-Pierre and Dr. Fauci shall provide answers to the Plaintiffâs interrogatories and document requests within twenty-one (21) days from the date of this order.”
Doughty also issued an order to the Biden admin to cough up records from HHS’ deputy assistant secretary for public engagement, the deputy director of the Office of Communications in HRSA, the head of HHSâ digital engagement team, and HHSâ deputy digital director.
“DOJ identified 45 federal officials who have interacted with social media companies on misinformation,” stated Schmitt via his official government-branded Twitter account. “Beyond DOJ, Meta identified 32 additional federal officials including White House Officials who communicated with them, and YouTube identified 11 federal officials including White House Officials who communicated with them, many of whom were not disclosed by DOJ.”
Schmitt labeled what the Biden administration was doing “a vast censorship enterprise,” going further to say, “the American people deserve to see the truth.”
Schmitt then posted via social media examples of various records that have been released so far.
A senior FB official sent an email to the Surgeon General stating, âI know our teams met today to better understand the scope of what the White House expects from us on misinformation going forward.â This email chain follows the SGâs âmisinformation health advisoryâ in July 2021. pic.twitter.com/PeqglHalRI
— Attorney General Eric Schmitt (@AGEricSchmitt) September 1, 2022
Further communications show that Facebook is âincreasing the strength of our demotions for COVID and vaccine-related content that third party fact checkers rate as âPartly Falseâ or âMissing Context.â
— Attorney General Eric Schmitt (@AGEricSchmitt) September 1, 2022
There are several instances where Facebook wouldnât proceed with censoring freedom of speech on their platform until they had input, or a âdebunkingâ from the CDC. Twitter followed the same course in at least one email. pic.twitter.com/7rIId8Unsa
— Attorney General Eric Schmitt (@AGEricSchmitt) September 1, 2022
A White House official was even concerned about parody Fauci accounts and coordinated with Facebook to take them down. pic.twitter.com/e14x6nHOzm
— Attorney General Eric Schmitt (@AGEricSchmitt) September 1, 2022
The Deputy Secretary at Treasury sought to connect with social media platforms and influence operations on social media. pic.twitter.com/i6Wy13dNgK
— Attorney General Eric Schmitt (@AGEricSchmitt) September 1, 2022
Just last month, Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), the House Minority Leader, highlighted Meta, the parent company for Facebook, due to its choice to decrease the reaching power of political content on Facebook, calling out the tech titan of being heavily politically biased.
“Facebook made sure no one saw the Hunter Biden laptop story before the 2020 election,” the House Republican claimed. “But now that America has record inflation, rising crime, & a border crisisâall as a result of Dem policiesâFacebook is shutting down more âpolitical contentâ to hide the truth from Americans.”
Facebook made sure no one saw the Hunter Biden laptop story before the 2020 election.
But now that America has record inflation, rising crime, & a border crisisâall as a result of Dem policiesâFacebook is shutting down more "political content" to hide the truth from Americans. pic.twitter.com/RLe1W3ybTb
— Kevin McCarthy (@GOPLeader) August 5, 2022