[HN Gopher] July 4th injunction bars feds from encouraging socia...
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       July 4th injunction bars feds from encouraging social media to
       delete content
        
       Author : hirundo
       Score  : 32 points
       Date   : 2023-07-04 20:30 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (reason.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (reason.com)
        
       | multjoy wrote:
       | That's a rollercoaster of a filing...
        
       | unethical_ban wrote:
       | >If the allegations made by Plaintiffs are true, the present case
       | arguably involves the most massive attack against free speech in
       | United States' history.
       | 
       | Whatever your opinion on the wisdom or tyranny of government
       | trying to control "misinformation" on private social media
       | platforms, the above line shows the absolute ignorance of the
       | judge.
       | 
       | Alien and Sedition Acts, Abrams v. United States come to mind.
        
         | ethanbond wrote:
         | Yeah the Red Lion v FCC citation seems a bit tenuous IMO, and
         | what the entire thing relies on. The point about Red Lion was
         | that there is limited spectrum and it's controlled by the
         | government, so it must impose neutrality or else the
         | _government_ has de facto control over speech. The problem was
         | never that private broadcasters could choose to say what they
         | wanted to say, it was that _the government_ could choose which
         | broadcasters could say whatever the broadcasters could say.
         | 
         | Not analogous to the internet at all?
        
         | gsibble wrote:
         | I don't think you can downplay how huge the scale of this was.
         | It's a 155 page ruling destroying the federal government's
         | actions.
        
         | remarkEon wrote:
         | Trying to steelman what he's maybe saying, it could be a
         | question of scale. An unelected Federal executive "urging"
         | (lol) private companies to manage content on their platforms in
         | some defined manner has the potential for massive impact. I
         | think that's the difference because there hasn't been a
         | technology able to do that in the past. At least the Alien and
         | Sedition Acts and the Espionage Act were acts of Congress,
         | however misguided.
        
           | ethanbond wrote:
           | FBI couldn't walk into NYTimes and ask them not to publish
           | something? Of course they could, and I'm sure they have many
           | times and I'm sure many times NYTimes told them "go fuck
           | yourself, see you in court if you want."
        
       | Kon-Peki wrote:
       | It's Judge Doughty in the Western District of Louisiana.
       | Republicans go judge shopping specifically to get him, and he
       | gives them what they want.
       | 
       | On appeal, his rulings don't hold up too well...
        
         | gsibble wrote:
         | Got an example?
        
           | Kon-Peki wrote:
           | The Covid-19 vaccine requirement for healthcare workers.
           | Doughty issued the nationwide injunction, the Supreme Court
           | overruled.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | 1MachineElf wrote:
       | From part of the injunction:                 IT IS FURTHER
       | ORDERED that the following actions are NOT prohibited by this
       | Preliminary Injunction:            1. informing social-media
       | companies of postings involving criminal activity or criminal
       | conspiracies;            2. contacting and/or notifying social-
       | media companies of national security threats, extortion, or other
       | threats posted on its platform;
       | 
       | etc.
       | 
       | I worry about that 2nd one creating a loophole. A lot of
       | nefarious activity can be loosely justified as "for national
       | security reasons." Why wouldn't the 1st set of actions be
       | sufficient? Are there national security threats that aren't
       | already criminalized?
        
       | gsibble wrote:
       | Choice quotes from the ruling:
       | 
       | https://innovationnation.blog/p/this-ruling-is-huge-155-page...
        
       | ren_engineer wrote:
       | link to actual document -
       | https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.lawd.18...
        
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       (page generated 2023-07-04 23:02 UTC)