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