Lawsuit claims Biden Admin urged Facebook to censor Tucker Carlson post.

Facebook Accused of Throttling Reach of Tucker Carlson Video

A federal lawsuit claims that Facebook complied with requests from President Joe Biden’s White House staff to limit the reach of a video by former Fox News host Tucker Carlson, despite Facebook staff determining that the video did not violate any policies.

However, a recent injunction issued by Judge Terry Doughty of Louisiana’s Western District federal court has barred Biden administration officials and government agencies from pressuring social media companies to censor or suppress certain content. This injunction comes as attorneys general in Louisiana and Missouri are suing the Biden administration, accusing it of government censorship-by-proxy.

In his ruling, Judge Doughty highlighted instances of alleged censorship following requests from the Biden administration, including a video segment by Tucker Carlson discussing COVID-19 vaccines.

On April 14, 2021, Deputy Assistant to the President and Director of Digital Strategy Rob Flaherty emailed Facebook executives demanding the suppression of Tucker Carlson’s video segment, where he questioned the safety of COVID-19 vaccines and claimed that people had been injured or died after taking them. Despite Facebook employee Brian Ross stating that the video did not warrant removal, Flaherty persisted in seeking a more detailed explanation.

White House Senior COVID-19 adviser Andy Slavitt also expressed his displeasure to Facebook executive Nick Clegg about the video, stating, “Not for nothing but the last time we did this dance, it ended in an insurrection.” However, Clegg maintained that the video did not meet the criteria for removal.

Although the video was not removed, Facebook officials admitted to “demoting” it to reduce its reach. They informed Flaherty that the video would be demoted by 50 percent for seven days and that this demotion would continue despite the video not violating any platform policies.

NTD News reached out to Facebook and the White House for comments, but no response was received at the time of publishing.

The Biden administration and other federal agencies have filed a notice of appeal seeking to overturn the injunction.

Other Allegations of Censorship

Judge Doughty’s decision to grant a preliminary injunction against the Biden administration suggests that the plaintiffs are likely to succeed in arguing that government officials caused censorship through encouragement and coercion. The government’s communications regarding Tucker Carlson’s video and other content support the plaintiffs’ case.

“Defendants used meetings and communications with social media companies to pressure them into suppressing the free speech of American citizens. They flagged posts and provided instructions on which posts to suppress. They also followed up with directives to the companies, requesting information on the actions taken,” wrote Judge Doughty. “This relentless pressure by Defendants resulted in the suppression of millions of protected free speech postings by American citizens.”

On January 23, 2021, just three days after the start of the Biden administration, White House COVID Response Digital Director Clarke Humphrey allegedly emailed Twitter and requested the removal of…