Conservatives have been celebrating on social media after a Louisiana district court judge ruled the Biden administration likely violated the First Amendment by encouraging social media companies to censor "political speech" during the coronavirus pandemic.
Judge Terry Doughty, a Trump appointee, accused the federal government of having "assumed a role similar to an Orwellian 'Ministry of Truth'" with "targeted suppression of conservative ideas."
He issued an injunction banning a range of federal agencies and officials, including the FBI and the Justice Department, from contacting social media companies with the aim of removing speech protected by the First Amendment.
During the COVID-19 pandemic prominent social media companies targeted what they deemed to be dangerous misinformation, sparking debates about free speech. In July 2021 then White House press secretary Jen Psaki described people "dying around the country because they are getting misinformation" about coronavirus vaccines as "our biggest concern."
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