An author whose social media posts about COVID-19 were censored is revealing new evidence that his accounts were deplatformed on orders from the Biden White House, which he and his lawyers allege is unconstitutional and illegal.
Justin Hart, author of “Gone Viral: How COVID Drove the World Insane” and founder of RationalGround.com, is suing Facebook, Twitter, Surgeon General Vivek Murthy and President Joe Biden for allegedly deplatforming him for social media posts about COVID-19, violating his First Amendment rights.
Hart alleges the deplatforming was unconstitutional because it was done at the direction of the Biden administration.
In 172 pages of new exhibits, consisting of emails, briefings and materials from the White House and tech companies, Hart alleges the Biden administration routinely met with social media companies, giving them orders on what kind of social media posts and accounts to deplatform and censor for differing with the government's position.
“New evidence confirms what we have long known: our federal government is working directly with Big Tech to silence Americans,” said Daniel Suhr, managing attorney at the Liberty Justice Center, who is representing Hart.
“The government is directing private companies to violate Americans' free speech rights. Censorship may have started with what they call ‘COVID misinformation,' but it opens the door for any administration to define any message they don't like as ‘misinformation.' This is unconscionable and illegal,” said Suhr.
“The depth of the collusion between Big Government and Big Tech is alarming and reveals a sinister plot to undermine the rights of Americans by fully removing certain ideas and people from public discourse,” said Hart.
“The government does not have a monopoly on truth. By directing and pressuring social media companies to censor Americans, our government is silencing critical discussions and, most importantly, violating our most sacred rights,” said Hart.
According to the LJC:
> Facebook offered the federal government, and it accepted, $15 million in free COVID-19 public health advertising to promote its public health message on the Internet.
> The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) and Biden administration officials coordinated its COVID “misinformation” response with Facebook and Twitter by holding regular “be-on-the-lookout” meetings and by providing examples of the types of messages that contradicted the government's message and it wanted censored.
> Facebook used proprietary tools to monitor social media posts that contradicted the federal government's COVID-19 narrative and reported such posts to the federal government.
> Facebook adjusted its policies and algorithms to align with misinformation policies set by the federal government.
The lawsuit, Hart v. Facebook, was filed on Aug. 31, 2021. It is being heard in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California, San Francisco Division.
The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the positions of American Liberty News.
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