Civil rights group joins growing lawsuit against big tech for collective censorship of COVID data

A noted civil rights organization has joined a lawsuit initially filed by Missouri and Louisiana that is challenging government-directed censorship of data and viewpoints regarding COVID-19 that contradicted pre-ordained deep state narratives.

The New Civil Liberties Alliance, or the NCLA, represents Drs. Martin Kulldorff and Jayanta Bhattacharya, as well as Jill Hines and Dr. Aaron Kheriaty, co-authors of the Great Barrington Declaration, an open letter published in October 2020 that challenged enduring coronavirus lockdowns as nonsensical, dangerous and even deadly, Reclaim The Net reports.

The group is joining the suit on the heels of recently unveiled emails from the Department of Homeland Security and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention indicating that the federal government essentially directed the major social media platforms to censor and throttle certain opinions, viewpoints and data regarding the pandemic to include threats of legal action from federal agencies if the platforms did not comply.

Reclaim The Net adds:

The censorship came in many forms, including permanent and temporary suspension of accounts, as well as shadow banning, de-monetization of content, warning labels, taking down content, and limiting the spread of content.

According to the NCLA, government-directed censorship is a violation of the First Amendment, which protects free speech. The government is not supposed to decide which voices get heard and which don’t.

“The government may not work through private entities to accomplish censorship that the First Amendment forbids the government from doing directly. Yet that is precisely what these federal defendants have been up to. NCLA is delighted to join forces with these state attorneys-general to reverse this constitutional outrage and restore free speech to the social media platforms that are today’s public square,” NCLA’s president Mark Chenoweth noted in a statement.

Added NCLA’s litigation counsel Jenin Younes: “The Biden Administration’s involvement in silencing the voices of those who have critiqued its responses to Covid-19, through pressure exerted on social media companies, is unprecedented in nature and degree.”

Two of the plaintiffs, Drs. Bhattacharya and Kulldorff, are among the world’s most renowned epidemiologists, and had crucial insights to share on the flawed reasoning and science underlying lockdowns and mask and vaccine mandates,” Younes continued.

“Dr. Kheriaty, a professor of medical ethics, and Ms. Hines, a consumer and human rights advocate, also offered thoughtful, reasoned opposition to government-imposed Covid-19 restrictions. The government’s sweeping campaign to suppress the perspectives of the plaintiffs, and others like them, represents the most severe abrogation of the First Amendment in modern times, and we look forward to seeing this constitutional atrocity rectified in a court of law,” Younes noted further.

As of this writing, the Great Barrington Declaration had garnered more than 930,500 signatures.

“As infectious disease epidemiologists and public health scientists we have grave concerns about the damaging physical and mental health impacts of the prevailing COVID-19 policies, and recommend an approach we call Focused Protection,” the declaration began.

“Coming from both the left and right, and around the world, we have devoted our careers to protecting people. Current lockdown policies are producing devastating effects on short and long-term public health,” the declaration continued.

“The results (to name a few) include lower childhood vaccination rates, worsening cardiovascular disease outcomes, fewer cancer screenings and deteriorating mental health – leading to greater excess mortality in years to come, with the working class and younger members of society carrying the heaviest burden. Keeping students out of school is a grave injustice,” it added.

The declaration also predicted, essentially, that “[k]eeping these measures in place until a vaccine is available will cause irreparable damage, with the underprivileged disproportionately harmed.”

Turns out that they were right.

According to new studies, the closures “have had a devastating impact on children’s mental health, development and future earnings potential,” Fox News reported earlier this week, adding: “According to data released last month by the National Center for Education Statistics, 70% of U.S. public schools have reported an increase in students seeking mental health services since the start of the pandemic.”

We wish the plaintiffs luck in holding big tech accountable as well as any government official who had a role in the insanity.

Sources include:

ReclaimTheNet.org

FoxNews.com