Submitted by Harold Saive<\/p>\n
Top-ranking Biden administration officials \u2014 including Dr. Anthony Fauci \u2014 and five social media giants have 30 days to respond to subpoenas and discovery requests in a lawsuit alleging the government colluded with social media companies to suppress freedom of speech \u201cunder the guise of combatting misinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n
https:\/\/ Top-ranking Biden administration officials \u2014 including\u00a0Dr. Anthony Fauci<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 and five social media giants have 30 days to respond to subpoenas and discovery requests in a lawsuit alleging the government colluded with social media companies to suppress freedom of speech \u201cunder the guise<\/a>\u00a0of combatting misinformation.\u201d<\/p>\n Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt and Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry on Wednesday\u00a0served third-party subpoenas<\/a>\u00a0on Twitter,\u00a0Meta<\/a>\u00a0(Facebook\u2019s parent company), Youtube,\u00a0Instagram<\/a>\u00a0and LinkedIn.<\/p>\n Schmitt and Landry on Tuesday filed\u00a0discovery requests<\/a>\u00a0seeking documents and information from the National Institute of Allergies and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) and Fauci, its director; White House Press Secretary\u00a0Karine Jean-Pierre<\/a>; Surgeon General\u00a0Dr. Vivek Murthy<\/a>; and former\u00a0Disinformation Governance Board<\/a>\u00a0executive director\u00a0Nina Jankowicz<\/a>.<\/p>\n Discovery requests also were sent to the\u00a0Centers for Disease Control and Prevention<\/a>\u00a0(CDC); the\u00a0Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency<\/a>\u00a0and its director,\u00a0Jen Easterly<\/a>; the\u00a0U.S. Department of Homeland Security<\/a>\u00a0(DHS); and the\u00a0U.S. Department of Health and Human Services<\/a>\u00a0(HHS).<\/p>\n \u201cIn May, Missouri and Louisiana filed a landmark lawsuit against top-ranking Biden Administration officials for allegedly colluding with social media giants to suppress free speech on topics like\u00a0COVID-19<\/a>\u00a0and election security,\u201d Schmitt said in Tuesday\u2019s\u00a0press release<\/a>.<\/p>\n Schmitt added:<\/p>\n \u201cEarlier this month, a federal court granted our motion for expedited discovery, allowing us to collect important documents from Biden Administration officials. Yesterday, we served discovery requests and today served third-party subpoenas to do exactly that.<\/p>\n \u201cWe will fight to get to the bottom of this alleged collusion and expose the suppression of freedom of speech by social media giants at the behest of top-ranking government officials.\u201d<\/p>\n Schmitt\u00a0announced in a July 12 statement<\/a>\u00a0that Terry Doughty, a judge in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana,\u00a0ruled in favor<\/a>\u00a0of a June 17 motion for expedited preliminary injunction-related discovery and set a timetable with specific deadlines for depositions.<\/p>\n According to Schmitt, government officials \u201cboth\u00a0pressured and colluded<\/a>\u00a0with social media giants Meta, Twitter and Youtube to censor free speech in the name of combating so-called \u2018disinformation\u2019 and \u2018misinformation,\u2019 which led to the\u00a0suppression and censorship<\/a>\u00a0of truthful information on several topics, including COVID-19.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe Court\u2019s decision cleared the way for Missouri and Louisiana to gather discovery and documents from Biden Administration officials and social media companies,\u201d Schmitt said in a\u00a0press release<\/a>\u00a0on Tuesday.<\/p>\n