fight against propaganda
Why a Trump judge is now banning Biden from speaking to Facebook and Twitter
President Joe Biden’s administration has already called off talks with Meta
© Evan Vucci/AP
Misinformation and propaganda are increasingly becoming a problem in elections. The US government therefore wanted to sit down with the social media platforms at the table. And now it was banned by a judge close to Trump.
It is a decision that could have far-reaching consequences: In a court decision, one of US federal judge Donald Trump banned the US authorities and explicitly the government of President Joe Biden from talking to the operators about certain content on social media. The fight against fake news could simply become impossible in some areas.
The lawsuit was filed by the chief attorneys for Louisiana and Missouri. She argues that state authorities have gone too far in their collaboration with social media. The reason for this is the measures against false information regarding the corona vaccination. Because these primarily concerned content from conservative users, the two plaintiffs see “the most egregious violations of freedom of expression in the history of the United States”.
talks cancelled
Judge Terry A. Dough now shares this assessment. He hasn’t made a final judgment yet. However, his judicial decision is already binding: government agencies are no longer allowed to work with social media in relation to content. The only exceptions are for threats to national security or violations of the law.
The consequences could be far-reaching. Disinformation campaigns on social media caused deep chasms in American society not only during the corona pandemic. Even in the last US election, campaigns with misinformation had had huge success. If it happened again in the 2024 election, the US government wouldn’t even be able to point out obvious lies to have them removed.
Biden’s White House had to cancel meetings with Facebook parent Meta yesterday. The meetings with the Interior Ministry’s cyber defense authority CISA have so far taken place monthly, but they have now been paused “indefinitely”.
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“Targeted suppression of conservative ideas”
The verdict has not yet been pronounced, but the direction is clear. In his 150-page decision paper, the judge appointed by Donald Trump in 2017 expressly praises the evidence collected by the plaintiffs and describes the measures against Covid misinformation as comparable to “Orwell’s Ministry of Truth”. The posts identified as false information are “suppressed expressions of opinion”, it is a “targeted suppression of conservative ideas”. He was sure that the plaintiffs could prove their allegations. The two plaintiffs, who belong to the Republican party, were correspondingly delighted.
The allegation is also remarkable because the government emphasizes that it has never deliberately deleted posts or was able to do so. They couldn’t even be proven wrong when Elon Musk pierced the so-called “Twitter files” to journalist Matt Taibi. There were e-mails in which officials asked for certain tweets to be deleted. However, they did not differ significantly from similar inquiries from private individuals or companies.
The White House sees it that way too. “We have always believed that social media platforms have an important responsibility to consider the effect of their stages on the public,” the statement said. “But they have to make that decision independently and based on the information they have.” The government would now examine its options.
Even if the government challenges the decision, this should only be an intermediate step. After all, the dispute directly concerns the question of how freedom of expression, which is so sacred in the USA, should be structured. Observers only expect a final decision from the Supreme Court.
Sources:New York Times, Washington Post, Independent