Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt announced Tuesday afternoon that his state’s joint lawsuit with Louisiana against the Biden administration over alleged censorship coordination with social media companies scored a major victory this week as the administration was ordered to turn over 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,” Schmitt tweeted.
🚨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,” U.S. District Judge Terry A. Doughty said in the ruling. “Therefore, Government Defendants Jean-Pierre and Dr. Fauci shall provide answers to the Plaintiff’s interrogatories and document requests within twenty-one (21) days from the date of this order.”
Doughty also ordered that the Biden administration must produce records from HHS’ deputy assistant secretary for public engagement, the head of HHS’ digital engagement team, the deputy director of the Office of Communications in HRSA, and HHS’ deputy digital director.
“DOJ identified 45 federal officials who have interacted with social media companies on misinformation,” Schmitt wrote on his official government 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 called what the Biden administration was doing “a vast censorship enterprise,” adding, “the American people deserve to see the truth.”
Schmitt then tweeted out examples of records that have been disclosed so far.
https://twitter.com/AGEricSchmitt/status/1565346281459163137
https://twitter.com/AGEricSchmitt/status/1565346302967578630
https://twitter.com/AGEricSchmitt/status/1565346329068351490
https://twitter.com/AGEricSchmitt/status/1565346350266343426
https://twitter.com/AGEricSchmitt/status/1565346370608721921
Last month, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) called out Meta, Facebook’s parent company, over its decision to decrease the reach of political content on Facebook, accusing the tech giant of being politically biased.
“Facebook made sure no one saw the Hunter Biden laptop story before the 2020 election,” the House Republican tweeted. “But now that America has record inflation, rising crime, & a border crisis—all as a result of Dem policies—Facebook is shutting down more ‘political content’ 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 crisis—all as a result of Dem policies—Facebook is shutting down more "political content" to hide the truth from Americans. pic.twitter.com/RLe1W3ybTb
— Kevin McCarthy (@SpeakerMcCarthy) August 5, 2022
The company originally announced these changes in February 2021, shortly after Democrat President Joe Biden was inaugurated, saying that it was hoping to decrease political content in news feeds. These changes included moves to “rank political content in people’s feeds using different signals.”
Meta announced in late July, just ahead of the 2022 midterms, that it would be implementing the changes around the world to decrease “political content” in users’ Facebook feeds.
Leif Le Mahieu contributed to this report.