Biden administration challenges social media censorship order

The Biden administration has asked a federal appeals court to lift an order limiting government officials’ communications with social media companies. The ruling came from a lawsuit accusing US officials of seeking to censor certain views about COVID-19 and other topics online. The lawsuit alleged that US government officials, under both Democratic President Joe Biden and his Republican predecessor Donald Trump, effectively coerced social media companies to censor posts over concerns they would fuel vaccine hesitancy during the COVID-19 pandemic or upend elections. However, the administration explained that the court’s decision was overly broad and would hurt the government’s ability to fight misinformation on platforms in a crisis. A panel of three judges is expected to hear the case next month.

Why does it matter? The final decision could have significant implications for tech companies and disrupt years of coordination between the government and social media platforms on issues such as election interference and public health misinformation. The order also coincides with social media companies scaling back their efforts to combat disinformation. Twitter, now under Elon Musk’s ownership, has reduced its Trust and Safety division and is relying more on Community Notes, a program that uses crowdsourced fact-checking for tweets. Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, has also downsized its content moderation team due to financial constraints.