Here we are on the Fourth of July 2023 wondering what has become of American liberty.
On this very day, a federal judge in Louisiana has shown us that the cause is not hopeless. In a tremendous victory for free speech, the Bill of Rights, and freedom generally, Judge Terry A. Doughty has issued a memorandum (with 172 footnotes) on “the most massive attack against free speech in United States’ history.”
“The evidence produced thus far depicts an almost dystopian scenario,” writes the Judge. “During the COVID-19 pandemic, a period perhaps best characterized by widespread doubt and uncertainty, the United States Government seems to have assumed a role similar to an Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth.’”
It includes an injunction against the following government agencies immediately to stop all routine contact with social media companies and media generally:
The Department of Justice (DOJ)
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
The Department of State
The Cybersecurity Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA)
The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI)
The National Institutes of Health (NIH)
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS)
The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
The White House
The Surgeon General
The Census Bureau
By social media companies, the order specifies: “Facebook/Meta, Twitter, YouTube/Google, WhatsApp, Instagram, WeChat, TikTok, Sina Weibo, QQ, Telegram, Snapchat, Kuaishou, Qzone, Pinterest, Reddit, LinkedIn, Quora, Discord, Twitch, Tumblr, Mastodon, and like companies.”
Specifically the injunction forbids the following:
(1) meeting with social-media companies for the purpose of urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech posted on social-media platforms;
(2) specifically flagging content or posts on social-media platforms and/or forwarding such to social-media companies urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner for removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech;
(3) urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner social-media companies to change their guidelines for removing, deleting, suppressing, or reducing content containing protected free speech;
(4) emailing, calling, sending letters, texting, or engaging in any communication of any kind with social-media companies urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner for removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech;
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