FreeSpeech and Censorship: Thread

grarpamp grarpamp at gmail.com
Thu Sep 8 14:11:31 PDT 2022


The fact that you sheep have to order your fucked up Govts to
produce their own criminality... is triply criminal, with you sheep
as the biggest of them all for emplacing them.


Judge Orders Fauci, Other Top Officials to Produce Records for Big
Tech–Government Censorship Lawsuit

https://www.theepochtimes.com/judge-orders-fauci-other-top-officials-to-produce-records-in-big-tech-government-censorship-lawsuit_4714820.html
https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/22275721-discovery-order

https://www.theepochtimes.com/federal-judge-orders-biden-administration-to-cooperate-in-social-media-collusion-lawsuit_4595222.html
https://www.theepochtimes.com/2-gop-led-states-sue-biden-administration-for-pressuring-and-colluding-with-big-tech-to-censor-free-speech_4449673.html
https://www.theepochtimes.com/over-50-biden-administration-employees-12-us-agencies-involved-in-social-media-censorship-push-documents_4704349.html
https://www.theepochtimes.com/many-of-faucis-emails-with-zuckerberg-should-be-shielded-from-lawsuit-government-says_4705309.html

Dr. Anthony Fauci, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, and
other top Biden administration officials who were resisting efforts to
obtain their communications with Big Tech companies must hand over the
records, a federal judge ruled on Sept. 6.

U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty, a Trump appointee, ordered the
government to quickly produce documents after it was sued by the
attorneys general of Louisiana and Missouri over alleged collusion
with Big Tech firms such as Facebook. The initial tranche of
discovery, released on Aug. 31, revealed that more than 50 government
officials across a dozen agencies were involved in applying pressure
to social media companies to censor users.

But some of the officials refused to provide any answers or answer all
questions posed by the plaintiffs. Among them: Fauci, who serves as
director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases
(NIAID) and chief medical adviser to President Joe Biden.

The government claimed that Fauci shouldn’t be required to answer all
questions or provide records in his capacity as NIAID director or in
his capacity as Biden’s chief medical adviser. It also attempted to
withhold records and responses from Jean-Pierre.

In the new ruling on Sept. 6 breaking the stalemate, Doughty said both
Fauci and Jean-Pierre needed to comply with the interrogatories and
record requests.

“First, the requested information is obviously very relevant to
Plaintiffs’ claims. Dr. Fauci’s communications would be relevant to
Plaintiffs’ allegations in reference to alleged suppression of speech
relating to the lab-leak theory of COVID-19’s origin, and to alleged
suppression of speech about the efficiency of masks and COVID-19
lockdowns. Jean-Pierre’s communications as White House Press Secretary
could be relevant to all of Plaintiffs’ examples,” Doughty said,
referring to examples such as the suppression of the Hunter Biden
laptop story ahead of the 2020 presidential election and censorship of
claims COVID-19 originated in a Chinese laboratory.

Doughty ordered Fauci and Jean-Pierre to comply within 21 days.

Fauci, additionally, must provide complete answers to questions
regarding his role as NIAID director.

“We know from the previous round of discovery that efforts to censor
the speech of those who disagree with the government on covid policy
have come from the top. Americans deserve to know Anthony Fauci’s
participation in this enterprise, especially since he has publicly
demanded that specific individuals, including two of our clients, Jay
Bhattacharya and Martin Kulldorff, be censored on social media,” Jenin
Younes, litigation counsel for the New Civil Liberties Alliance and a
lawyer for some of the plaintiffs, said in a statement.

“It is time for Dr. Fauci to answer for his flagrant disregard for
Americans’ constitutional rights and civil liberties.”
Epoch Times Photo Martin Kulldorff, epidemiologist and statistician,
at his home in Ashford, Conn., on Feb. 11, 2022. (Samira Bouaou/The
Epoch Times)
HHS

The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), the parent agency
of NIAID, also tried to avoid giving answers or documents in the legal
battle, even though discovery from Big Tech companies revealed key HHS
officials as participating in what plaintiffs have described as a
“censorship enterprise.”

Both HHS and the Department of Homeland Security objected to attempts
to get the agencies to search widely for relevant records, describing
the attempts as “unduly burdensome and disproportionate to the needs
of the case.” HHS identified NIAID, the Centers for Disease Control
and Prevention, and the Office of the Surgeon General as three
subagencies that would likely have the records sought.

Plaintiffs said that HHS was effectively exempting itself from the
discovery process.

Doughty agreed with HHS that conducting a search for relevant records
among all 80,000 HHS employees would be overly burdensome, but said
the HHS employees identified in documents from Meta, Facebook’s parent
company, as engaging with the company needed to respond to the
discovery requests.

He ordered the HHS officials, including the HHS deputy digital
director, to provide responses within 21 days.
Amended Complaint

Government officials identified 45 officials across five agencies as
officials who communicate with social media companies about
misinformation and censorship. But emails and other documents provided
by Meta, Twitter, and Google in the case show a number of other
officials, including officials at other agencies and the White House,
were involved in the effort.

Further, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently disclosed that the FBI
reached out about disinformation before the 2020 election. Soon after
that, Facebook suppressed the circulation of the first Hunter Biden
laptop story.

“With each of these new revelations, Plaintiffs have approached
Defendants and requested that they supplement their discovery
responses to include responsive communications from the newly
disclosed federal officials. Defendants have refused to do so, on the
grounds that none of these newly discovered officials have been sued
or served with discovery as yet, and that it would be unduly
burdensome to identify and produce their communications,” the
plaintiffs said in a recent filing.

The plaintiffs asked to file an amended complaint naming all of the
identified officials as defendants to address the issues.

They said the amended filing would enable the serving of requests for
records and information to each of the officials who were not
initially disclosed by the government.

Doughty said that plaintiffs could file within 30 days an amended
complaint adding additional agencies and individuals.


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