MONROE, LA – In a landmark win for free speech, several government agencies entered a consent decree with Missouri and Louisiana that legally bars federal officials from pressuring Big Tech companies to censor Americans on social media for the next decade. The U.S. Surgeon General, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) agreed to a 10-year consent decree where they are prohibited from threatening social media companies with adverse actions to compel censorship of protected speech.

The case is Missouri v. Biden, formerly Murthy v. Missouri, and was brought by state attorneys general, and medical and media professionals who were censored online by the Biden administration on topics like COVID-19, the 2020 election, and the Hunter Biden laptop story.  

The consent decree reads, “…the Government cannot take actions, formal or informal, directly or indirectly—except as authorized by law—to threaten Social-Media Companies with some form of punishment (i.e., an adverse legal, regulatory, or economic government sanction) unless they remove, delete, suppress, or reduce, including through altering their algorithms, posted social-media content containing protected free speech.” The decree applies to the federal government regarding the social media platforms of Facebook, Instagram, Twitter or X, LinkedIn, and YouTube.

The binding decree, which will be enforced by the federal court, also dictates that these agencies may not “unilaterally direct or veto” any content moderation decisions by these companies. 

In June 2024, the U.S. Supreme Court heard Murthy v. Missouri but ruled 6-3 that the challengers did not have standing for an injunction against the federal government as they did not adequately show their First Amendment harm was fully traceable to its actions. However, the High Court’s ruling did not rule on the merits of the case, nor did it rule out the challengers’ standing to continue the lawsuit.  Therefore, the U.S. District Court allowed the lawsuit to continue to further establish standing. 

Then President Donald Trump issued Executive Order 14149, “Restoring Freedom of Speech and Ending Federal Censorship” in January 2025. In that order, President Trump stated the Biden administration “trampled free speech rights” of Americans “by exerting substantial coercive pressure” on social media companies to “suppress speech that the Federal Government did not approve.” The order directed the federal government to “correct past misconduct” regarding censoring protected speech.

Both the defendants and plaintiffs were due to brief the district court in March and April 2026, respectively, on the effect of that executive order on the case. However, “opposed to continuing costly and protracted litigation,” all parties agreed to resolve the issue in full with this consent decree and end the litigation completely, stated the decree.

Liberty Counsel Founder and Chairman Mat Staver said, “This consent decree is a vital mechanism to protect free speech rights no matter who holds executive power. The federal government has no business pressuring social media companies to censor viewpoints or silence lawful speech. Americans have a First Amendment right to independent online discourse.”

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