Legal analyst Shanlon Wu argued that the ruling would help accelerate the spread of misinformation online.
A Trump-appointed judge’s decision blocking several parts of the federal government from contacting social media companies about a wide variety of posts is « a blow to public safety, » according to former federal prosecutor Shanlon Wu.
On Tuesday, Judge Terry A. Doughty of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana issued a preliminary injunction barring agencies, including the Department of Health and Human Services, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Department of Justice and the FBI, from making contact with social media companies for « the purpose of urging, encouraging, pressuring, or inducing in any manner the removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech. »
The federal government is still permitted to communicate with the companies in attempts to thwart criminal activity and confront national security threats, according to the injunction.
