MONROE, LA – Yesterday, Jeff Landry and Eric Schmitt filed a Joint Statement on Discovery Disputes, asking a federal court in the Western District of Louisiana to compel the United States Department of Justice to turn over communications between high-ranking Biden Administration officials from the White House, Department of State, FBI, and others and major social media companies.
The filing is a result of a landmark lawsuit filed by Louisiana and Missouri in May. In July, the Court required the Biden Administration to turn over communications between federal officials and social media companies. The USDOJ has already turned over communications between a number of federal officials and social media companies but has refused to provide communications between top-ranking officials and social media companies.
“When the federal government colludes with Big Tech to censor speech, the American people become subjects rather than citizens,” said Landry. “The USDOJ must not be allowed to hide behind the veil of executive privilege, especially when there is already compelling evidence that the people’s government colluded with these social media companies to suppress their right of free speech.”
“Missouri and Louisiana filed a landmark lawsuit back in May that seeks to expose how top Biden Administration officials allegedly colluded with social media companies to censor freedom of speech on a number of topics, including COVID-19. We won in court in July, and the Court required the Biden Administration to turn over communications between federal officials and social media companies,” said Schmitt. “We have already received a number of documents that clearly prove that the federal government has an incestuous relationship with social media companies and clearly coordinate to censor freedom of speech, but we’re not done. The Department of Justice is cowering behind executive privilege and has refused to turn over communications between the highest-ranking Biden Administration officials and social media companies. That’s why, yesterday, we asked the Court to compel the Department of Justice to produce those records. We’re just getting started – stay tuned.”
The communications already provided by the USDOJ to the plaintiff states show a vast “Censorship Enterprise” across a multitude of federal agencies. In response to discovery, the defendants identified 45 federal officials at DHS, CISA, the CDC, NIAID, and the Office of the Surgeon General (all of which are contained in either DHS or HHS) that communicate with social media platforms about “misinformation” and censorship.
The joint statement points out, “But in these responses, Defendants did not provide information about other federal officials at other federal agencies of whom they are aware who engage in such communications with social-media platforms about misinformation and censorship. Defendants’ document production, however, revealed that such officials at other federal agencies exist—for example, they include extensive copying of officials at the Census Bureau, and they also include communications suggesting that the Departments of Treasury and State may be involved as well.”
Beyond the USDOJ’s production, “Meta identified 32 federal officials—including senior officials at the FDA, the U.S. Election Assistance Commission, and the White House— have communicated with Meta about content moderation on its platforms, many of whom were not disclosed in response to Plaintiffs’ interrogatories to Defendants. YouTube disclosed an additional eleven officials, including officials at the Census Bureau and the White House, many of whom were also not disclosed by Defendants.”
“The discovery provided so far demonstrates that this Censorship Enterprise is extremely broad, including officials in the White House, HHS, DHS, CISA, the CDC, NIAID, and the Office of the Surgeon General,” the joint statement continues. “And evidently other agencies as well, such as the Census Bureau, the FDA, the FBI, the State Department, the Treasury Department, and the U.S. Election Assistance Commission. And it rises to the highest levels of the U.S. Government, including numerous White House officials. Defendants have objected to producing some of the most relevant and probative information in their possession.”
This “Censorship Enterprise” is proven by the United States Department of Justice’s productions thus far, but the full extent of federal officials’ collusion with social media companies on censorship is unknown until the USDOJ produces further communications requested by Louisiana and Missouri.
A senior Facebook official sent an email to the Surgeon General stating, “I know our teams met today to better understand the scope of what the White House expects from us on misinformation going forward.” This email chain follows the SG’s “misinformation health advisory” in July 2021.
The same senior official sent a later email to HHS and noted, “Thanks again for taking the time to meet earlier today.” Then, the official continued to discuss how Facebook is taking even more steps to censor freedom of speech.
Twitter scheduled a meeting to debrief top White House Officials on “vaccine misinformation.”
There are several instances (including here and here) where Facebook wouldn’t proceed with censoring freedom of speech on their platform until they had input or a “debunking” from the CDC. Twitter followed the same course in at least one email.
The CDC also proposed a monthly debunking meeting with Facebook to help them censor free speech as well as regular “Be on the Lookout” calls with major social media outlets.
A White House official was even concerned about parody Fauci accounts and coordinated with FB to take them down.
