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In
a filing with the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of
Appeals, the administration said the lower court ruling was
"both sweeping in scope and vague in its terms," and likely to
be overturned on appeal.
The administration appealed the order on July 5, the day after
it was issued. An emergency stay would put it on hold while the
5th Circuit considers the appeal.
The lower court order, issued by U.S. District Judge Terry
Doughty in Louisiana, came in a lawsuit brought by Republican
attorneys general in Louisiana and Missouri and by several
individuals. They alleged that U.S. government officials
effectively coerced social media companies to censor posts over
concerns they would fuel vaccine hesitancy during the COVID-19
pandemic or upend elections.
The social media companies mentioned in the lawsuit include
Facebook and Instagram parent Meta Platforms Inc, Twitter and
Alphabet's YouTube.
Doughty's order barred government agencies such as the
Department of Health and Human Services and FBI from talking to
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 First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution, with
narrow exceptions.
U.S. officials have said they were aiming to tamp down
misinformation about COVID vaccines to curb preventable deaths.
They have also said the plaintiffs in the lawsuit no longer face
any harm because those efforts ended more than a year ago.
Legal experts have said the order will likely face tough
scrutiny on appeal, thanks to its breadth and the lack of clear
precedents supporting it.
(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York; Editing by Alexia
Garamfalvi, Daniel Wallis and Himani Sarkar)
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