SCOTUS to Weigh Free Speech Case Regarding Social Media ‘Misinformation’
On Monday, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) will decide whether or not the government disobeyed the constitutional right to free speech when they pressured social media platforms to take down content they labeled as misinformation. The case stems primarily from the Biden administration’s efforts to remove misinformation regarding the COVID-19 pandemic and the US 2020 presidential election, according to a recent report.
SCOTUS is essentially tasked with deciding if the First Amendment has limits regarding what is written online and on social media platforms.
“The key free speech issue is how far can the government go in verbally arm-twisting private speech intermediaries to remove speech before that constitutes a First Amendment violation or state action,” said Clay Calvert, a law professor at the University of Florida.
SCOTUS will be looking at two cases regarding free speech rights. In Murthy v. Missouri, the social media case, a suit was brought by five social media users and the Republican attorney generals of Missouri and Louisiana.
“By silencing speakers and entire viewpoints across social-media platforms, defendants systematically injure plaintiffs’ ability to participate in free online discourse,” state officials from Louisiana and Missouri wrote.
In their complaint, the plaintiffs claim that they were censored on social media regarding several topics including: a story about Hunter Biden’s laptop before the 2020 election; the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic; the efficiency of measures to mitigate the spread of COVID-19; and the integrity of the US 2020 election.
A federal district judge in Louisiana found that seven groups of Biden administration officials violated the First Amendment because they “coerced” or “significantly encouraged” changing social media platforms’ content-moderation decisions.
The Biden administration argued that the social media users and states lack legal standing in their case, but said officials must be free “to inform, to persuade, and to criticize”, according to filings.
“The court imposed unprecedented limits on the ability of the president’s closest aides to speak about matters of public concern, on the FBI’s ability to address threats to the nation’s security, and on CDC’s ability to relay public-health information,” Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, who represents the government before SCOTUS, said.
SCOTUS will also hear an appeal from the National Rifle Association (NRA) over comments made by Maria Vullo, a former New York State official, after she urged insurance companies and banks to abandon their relationship with gun-promoting groups after a school shooting in Parkland, Florida. The group says that Vullo, who served as the former New York State Department of Financial Services superintendent, violated the group’s First Amendment rights.
Vullo reportedly sent out “guidance letters” to businesses and in a press statement called on banks and insurance companies operating in New York to consider the “reputational risks” in doing business with the NRA or other gun groups.
“In both cases, the government doesn’t actually have the power to regulate speech or to decide whether the NRA can access banking institutions or not,” said Will Duffield, a policy analyst at the libertarian Cato Institute, adding that “the government is seemingly gaining, gathering, usurping new powers by leaning on these intermediaries in order to do things that it isn’t authorized to do itself.”
David Greene, the civil liberties director at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, said US officials will not lose their ability to combat misinformation or disinformation, but adds that they do have a responsibility to not appear as coercive or forceful.
“There are two main issues, and that is what do courts look at to determine whether and at what point a government crosses the line from voicing its opinion about how a social media platform should treat a specific post to unconstitutionally coercing the censorship, the negative moderation of that post,” he said.
“There’s no disagreement that there is a point at which it becomes unconstitutional, but what the parties disagree on is what is that line and what is the appropriate analysis for setting that line, what factors to consider?
On Friday, SCOTUS decided that government officials can sometimes be sued under the Constitution’s First Amendment for blocking critics on social media.
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Breaking Intel: Congressman Dan Crenshaw Considering Resignation After he Was Caught Lying Against American Citizens
Alex Jones and guest, attorney Viva Frei, discussed Rhino Republican Congressman Dan Crenshaw and his lies during the Sunday Alex Jones Show.
“They call themselves Republicans so they can justify and sort of make it look like it’s bi-partisan hatred against Trump, it’s uni-party,” Frei said. “And I just don’t understand what threat they think Trump poses to them that they’re willing to tear the country apart, burn it down so they can rule over the ashes.”
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Germany is Running Out of Money And Debt Levels Are Exploding
German Finance Minister Christian Lindner is warning his own government that state finances are quickly growing out of hand, and the government needs to change course and implement austerity measures. However, the dispute over spending is only expected to escalate, with budget shortfalls causing open clashes among the three-way left-liberal coalition running the country.
With negotiations kicking off for the 2025 budget, much is at stake. However, the picture has been complicated after the country’s top court ruled that the government could not shift €60 billion in money earmarked for the coronavirus crisis to other areas of the budget, with the court noting that the move was unconstitutional.
Since then, the government has been in crisis mode, and sought to cut the budget in a number of areas, including against the country’s farmers. Those cuts already sparked mass protests, showcasing how delicate the situation remains for the government.
Lindner, whose party has taken a beating in the polls, is desperate to create some distance from his coalition partners and save his party from electoral disaster. The finance minster says the financial picture facing Germany is dire, and that the budget shortfall will only grow in the coming years if measures are not taken to rein in spending.
“In an unfavorable scenario, the increasing financing deficits lead to an increase in debt in relation to economic output to around 345 percent in the long term,” reads the Sustainability Report released by his office. “In a favorable scenario, the rate will rise to around 140 percent of gross domestic product by 2070.”
Under EU law, Germany has limited its debt levels to 60 percent of economic output, which requires dramatic savings. A huge factor is Germany’s rapidly aging population, with a debt explosion on the horizon as more and more citizens head into retirement while tax revenues shrink and the social welfare system grows — in part due to the country’s exploding immigrant population.
Lindner’s partners, the Greens and Social Democrats (SPD), are loath to cut spending further, as this will harm their electoral chances. In fact, Labor Minister Hubertus Heil is pushing for a new pension package that will add billions to the country’s debt, which remarkably, Lindner also supports.
The SPD is calling for the removal of the country’s debt brake to fund large investment projects, however, the FDP ran on a campaign of keeping the brake in place. It can only be removed if the coalition government votes accordingly, and the FDP is adamant it will not vote to remove the brake.
“It must be clear: you cannot buy growth with new debt,” FDP parliamentary group leader Christian Dürr told Swiss newspaper NZZ. “Instead, we have to initiate structural reforms to address the economic policy failures of the Union-led federal governments.”
The FDP wants to cut taxes and reduce regulations, a move sharply rejected by the Greens and SPD.
“The budget discussions will be much more strenuous compared to 2024 – perhaps even the most difficult that I have experienced so far in my time as a parliamentarian,” said SPD leader Lars Klingbeil.
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Breaking: Deep State Bloodbath Hoax Awakens Sleeping Giant
Alex Jones and guest, attorney Viva Frei, discuss the media spin of Donald Trump’s use of the term ‘bloodbath’ during his Sunday show.
“So, that is a corporate term, I’ve heard it all my life watching CNBC, reading the Wall Street Journal,” Jones said. “When a company loses big it’s called a bloodbath.”
Jones explains how Trump was clearly talking about the U.S. auto industry.
“When you say that someone is going to violently kill people in the streets if they don’t get elected, you created an existential threat,” Frei said.
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Russian Forces Destroy Base of Al-Tanf Militants in Syria
MOSCOW (Sputnik) – Russian aerospace forces wreaked havoc on a base of Al-Tanf militants sheltering in Syria’s Deir Ez-Zor governorate, Vadim Kulit, deputy head of the Russian Defense Ministry’s Center for Reconciliation of Opposing Sides in Syria, said on Saturday, adding that the terrorists suffered significant losses.
“On March 15, Russian aerospace forces carried out a strike on the base of militants who left the Al-Tanf zone and sheltered in hard-to-reach areas of the Jebel Bishri mountain range in the Deir Ez-Zor governorate. As a result, the terrorists suffered significant losses in material assets and manpower,” Kulit said.
Russian Military Destroys 2 Militant Bases, 20 Terrorists in Syria’s Idlib Province
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‘I Don’t Have a Girlfriend so I Was Forced to Rape!’ – Congolese Migrant to Stand Trial For Triple Rape of Pensioners And a Schoolgirl
A Congolese migrant due to stand trial in France for the double rape of two elderly hospital patients and the rape of a minor two days later has claimed that because he does not have a girlfriend he is “forced” to rape.
Ali Gandega, 28, was arrested in September 2022 after entering the Max-Fourestier Hospital in Nanterre on July 27 and sexually assaulting a 78-year-old patient in bed before fleeing to another ward on the premises and raping a 68-year-old woman suffering from a neurodegenerative disease just minutes later.
Video footage from the hospital showed the abuse suffered by the two elderly victims and DNA evidence taken after his arrest linked him to another rape, this time a 12-year-old girl, that occurred two days later in the same city.
Le Parisien reported how the man had used scaffolding to enter the child’s bedroom window before strangling and molesting her.
At a police interview, Gandega reportedly told officers that he only wanted to “make love” and that he had initially entered the hospital with a view to raping babies, leading to questions about his mental capacity to stand trial.
French media reported how, when Gandega was in police custody, he explained that because he didn’t have a girlfriend, he was “forced” to rape.
“I decided not to ask anymore … and to do what I had to do,” he is cited as saying.
Born in the Republic of Congo, the suspect joined his siblings in France at the age of 18 but soon became addicted to drugs and refused to work, leading to his sisters throwing him out and him becoming homeless.
During his pre-trial detention, Gandega was relocated from a prison to a secure psychiatric facility and has reportedly become a recluse, refusing to leave his prison cell for interrogations.
He did, however, at one point reportedly attempt to rape a fellow patient or inmate.
Despite being diagnosed as psychotic, an expert psychiatric report has recommended that he is fit to stand trial for the crimes, and an indictment order was filed on Jan. 30 for a trial later this year at the Hauts-de-Seine Criminal Court.
Gandega faces up to 20 years in prison for the offenses.
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