In a ruling issued on Tuesday, Terry Doughty, a Louisiana District Court Judge, backed claims that the US president’s administration had engaged in a “massive” attempt to stop Americans questioning the efficacy of vaccines online.
He also issued a temporary ban on federal officials and agencies from meeting with social media company executives for the purpose of removing First Amendment-protected speech.
“During the Covid-19 pandemic, a period perhaps best characterised by widespread doubt and uncertainty, the United States Government seems to have assumed a role similar to an Orwellian ‘Ministry of Truth’,” the judge, an appointee of former president Donald Trump, wrote in his 155-page opinion.
There was no immediate comment on the injunction from the White House, Google or Facebook. The measure can be appealed by the Biden administration at the New Orleans-based 5th US Circuit Court of Appeals, US news outlet Politico reported.
The ruling came after it was revealed last month that UK ministers set up a…
