US Settles Social Media Censorship Case, Bars Agencies From Threatening Penalties
Source: USA Today/Reuters
March 24, 2026, at 6:43 p.m.
WASHINGTON, March 24 (Reuters) - The Trump administration has agreed to a settlement that will bar three federal agencies from pressuring social media companies to remove or suppress speech, ending a high-profile lawsuit that reached the U.S. Supreme Court when Trump's predecessor Joe Biden was president.
The settlement, filed on Tuesday in a federal court in Louisiana, resolves a lawsuit brought by Missouri, Louisiana and several individual plaintiffs who alleged that the Democratic Biden administration unlawfully coerced major social media platforms into censoring posts about topics including COVID-19 and the 2020 presidential election.
Under the agreement, the Surgeon General's office, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency are prohibited for 10 years from threatening social media companies with legal, regulatory or economic punishment to get them to take down protected speech. The White House had no immediate comment.
John Vecchione, a lawyer for some of the plaintiffs in the case, said in a statement that "freedom of speech has been powerfully preserved by our clients, past and present, who initiated this suit.”
Read more: https://www.usnews.com/news/top-news/articles/2026-03-24/us-settles-social-media-censorship-case-bars-agencies-from-threatening-penalties
Link to CONSENT DECREE (PDF) - https://fingfx.thomsonreuters.com/gfx/legaldocs/zjpqmwrarpx/Missouri%20v%20Trump%20consent%20order.pdf