The U.K.’s Online Safety Bill, which goals to control the web, has been revised to remove a controversial but critical measure.
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A U.S. federal judge on Tuesday restricted some agencies and officials of the administration of President Joe Biden from meeting and communicating with social media firms to moderate their content, in line with a court filing.
The injunction got here in response to a lawsuit brought by Republican attorneys general in Louisiana and Missouri, who alleged that U.S. government officials went too far in efforts to encourage social media firms to deal with posts they nervous could contribute to vaccine hesitancy throughout the COVID-19 pandemic or upend elections.
The ruling said government agencies just like the Department of Health and Human Services and the FBI couldn’t refer to social media firms for “the aim of urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech” under the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment to the US Structure.
A White House official said the Justice Department was reviewing the order and can evaluations its options.
The order also mentioned by name officials including Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas and Jen Easterly, who heads the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, in its restrictions.
Judge Terry Doughty, in an order filed with the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, made some exceptions for communications between government officials and the businesses, including to warn about risks to national security and about criminal activity.
The injunction was first reported by the Washington Post.
Tuesday’s order marks a win for Republicans who had sued the Biden administration, saying it was using the coronavirus health crisis and the specter of misinformation as an excuse to curb views that disagreed with the federal government.
U.S. officials have said they were aiming to tamp down misinformation about COVID vaccines to curb preventable deaths.
Facebook and Instagram parent Meta Platforms, Twitter, and Alphabet’s YouTube didn’t immediately reply to requests for comment.
