Coercion does not need to be explicit and Censorship

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In rare Independence Day ruling, federal judge forbids federal agencies from contacting social media sites to censor posts

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Explicit threats are an obvious form of coercion, but not all coercion need be explicit. The following illustrative specific actions by Defendants are examples of coercion exercised by the White House Defendants:

(a) “Cannot stress the degree to which this needs to be resolved immediately. Please remove this account immediately.”

(b) Accused Facebook of causing “political violence” by failing to censor false COVID-19 claims.604

(c) “You are hiding the ball.”

(d) “Internally we have been considering our options on what to do about it.”606

(e) “I care mostly about what actions and changes you are making to ensure you’re not making our country’s vaccine hesitancy problem worse.”

(f) “This is exactly why I want to know what “Reduction” actually looks like – if “reduction” means pumping our most vaccine hesitance audience with Tucker Carlson saying it does not work… then… I’m not sure it’s reduction.”

(g) Questioning how the Tucker Carlson video had been “demoted” since there were 40,000 shares.

(h) Wanting to know why Alex Berenson had not been kicked off Twitter because Berenson was the epicenter of disinformation that radiated outward to the persuadable public.610 “We want to make sure YouTube has a handle on vaccine hesitancy and is working toward making the problem better. Noted that vaccine hesitancy was a concern. That is shared by the highest (‘and I mean the highest’) levels of the White House.”’

(i) After sending to Facebook a document entitled “Facebook COVID-19 Vaccine Misinformation Brief, which recommends much more aggressive censorship by Facebook. Flaherty told Facebook sending the Brief was not a White House endorsement of it, but “this is circulating around the building and informing thinking.”

(j) Flaherty stated: “Not to sound like a broken record, but how much content is being demoted, and how effective are you at mitigating reach and how quickly?”

(k) Flaherty told Facebook: “Are you guys fricking serious” I want an answer on what happened here and I want it today.”

(l) Surgeon General Murthy stated: “We expect more from our technology companies. We’re asking them to operate with greater transparency and accountability. We’re asking them to monitor information more closely. We’re asking them to consistently take action against misinformation super-spreaders on their platforms.”

(m) White House Press Secretary Psaki stated: “we are in regular touch with these social-media platforms, and those engagements typically happen through members of our senior staff, but also members of our COVID-19 team. We’re flagging problematic posts for Facebook that spread disinformation. Psaki also stated one of the White House’s “asks” of social-media companies was to “create a robust enforcement strategy.”

(n) When asked about what his message was to social-media platforms when it came to COVID-19, President Biden stated: “they’re killing people. Look, the only pandemic we have is among the unvaccinated and that – they’re killing people.”

(o) Psaki stated at the February 1, 2022, White House Press Conference that the White House wanted every social-media platform to do more to call out misinformation and disinformation and to uplift accurate information.

(p) “Hey folks, wanted to flag the below tweet and am wondering if we can get moving on the process of having it removed. ASAP”

(q) “How many times can someone show false COVID-19 claims before being removed?”

(r) “I’ve been asking you guys pretty directly over a series of conversations if the biggest issues you are seeing on your platform when it comes to vaccine hesitancy and the degree to which borderline content- as you define it, is playing a role.”

(s) “I am not trying to play ‘gotcha’ with you. We are gravely concerned that your service is one of the top drivers of vaccine hesitancy-period.”

(t) “You only did this, however after an election that you helped increase skepticism in and an insurrection which was plotted, in large part, on your platform.”

(u) “Seems like your ‘dedicated vaccine hesitancy’ policy isn’t stopping the disinfo dozen.”

(v) White House Communications Director, Kate Bedingfield’s announcement that “the White House is assessing whether social-media platforms are legally liable for misinformation spread on their platforms, and examining how misinformation fits into the liability protection process by Section 230 of The Communication Decency Act.”

These actions are just a few examples of the unrelenting pressure the Defendants exerted against social-media companies. This Court finds the above examples demonstrate that Plaintiffs can likely prove that White House Defendants engaged in coercion to induce social-media companies to suppress free speech.

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