by Ken Klukowski at Breitbart
Social media companies like Facebook are free to continue censoring conservatives according to a divided Supreme Court, over a vigorous conservative dissent.
“During the 2020 election season and the COVID–19 pandemic, social-media platforms frequently removed, demoted, or fact checked posts containing allegedly false or misleading information,” Justice Amy Coney Barrett began for the majority. “At the same time, federal officials, concerned about the spread of “misinformation” on social media, communicated extensively with the platforms about their content-moderation efforts.”
Barrett recounted the facts of various officials in the White House, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the surgeon general, the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).
“Though the platforms restricted the plaintiffs’ content, the plaintiffs maintain that the Federal Government was behind it,” Barrett explained. “Acting on that belief, the plaintiffs sued dozens of Executive Branch officials and agencies, alleging that they pressured the platforms to censor the plaintiffs’ speech in violation of the First Amendment.”
We begin—and end—with standing,” she declared. “At this stage, neither the individual nor the state plaintiffs have established standing to seek an injunction against any defendant. We therefore lack jurisdiction to reach the merits of the dispute.”…
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