The Supreme Court ruled in favor of the Biden administration on Wednesday, allowing federal agencies like the White House and the FBI to continue urging social media platforms to remove content deemed misinformation.

This decision, seen as a significant victory for the administration ahead of the upcoming elections, permits agencies such as the Department of Homeland Security to flag posts they suspect are linked to foreign efforts to disrupt the presidential race.

Rather than addressing the broader First Amendment issues raised, the court focused on the plaintiffs’ lack of standing to sue.

Justice Amy Coney Barrett, writing for a 6-3 majority, emphasized that the plaintiffs failed to demonstrate a concrete risk of imminent harm traceable to government actions and remediable by the injunction sought, CNN has reported.

The Biden administration has long sought to persuade platforms like Facebook and others to remove misleading posts related to vaccines, Covid-19, and the 2020 election, arguing these posts violated the platforms’ own policies.

Critics, including Republican officials from Missouri and Louisiana, as well as five social media users, accused the administration of improperly pressuring tech companies to silence dissenting voices, alleging an informal campaign of coercion known as “jawboning.”

Written by B.C. Begley