US government officials ordered to limit contact with Google, Facebook, Twitter: Here’s why

A federal judge in the US has ordered some agencies and top officials of the US President Joe Biden administration to contact social media companies including Facebook parent Meta, Twitter, YouTube/Google, WhatsApp, Instagram, WeChat, TikTok and other platforms. The order is aimed at limiting their role in moderating content.

According to a report by news agency Reuters, the ruling blocks government agencies like the Department of Health and Human Services, and the FBI for connecting 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” under the Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment to the US Constitution.