The following is from Children’s Health Defense.

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Children’s Health Defense (CHD) and the US Dept. of Justice (DOJ) finalized a settlement in CHD’s landmark censorship lawsuit against key Biden administration officials accused of colluding with tech companies to censor social media content.

In a press release, the DOJ cited President Donald Trump’s Jan. 20, 2025, executive order acknowledging that the previous administration had pressured social media companies to “moderate, deplatform, or otherwise suppress speech” it did not approve of.

CHD, along with its then-chairman Robert F. Kennedy Jr., originally filed the lawsuit in March 2023 against President Joe Biden, Dr. Anthony Fauci and other federal officials, alleging a coordinated effort to censor constitutionally protected speech.

The case, initially filed as Kennedy v. Biden, was later renamed after a change in administration. Kennedy, who left CHD to run for president, now serves as secretary of the US Dept. of Health and Human Services.

CHD attorney Jed Rubenfeld called the settlement a significant outcome.

“We brought this case years ago to challenge the Biden administration’s assault on free speech. Today, the government, under a new administration, acknowledged that assault.”
— Jed Rubenfeld, attorney for Children’s Health Defense

As part of the settlement, the government agreed to pay attorneys’ fees.

The DOJ also settled a related case, Missouri v. Biden, issuing a consent decree that will remain in effect for 10 years. The agreement prohibits federal agencies — including the CDC and the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) — from pressuring social media companies to remove or suppress protected speech.

CHD CEO Mary Holland said the censorship extended beyond the organization and affected public debate during the Covid pandemic.

“Censorship … shut down scientific debate around Covid-19 vaccines, preventing Americans from being able to make informed decisions.”
— Mary Holland, Children’s Health Defense

CHD was deplatformed by Meta, the parent company of Facebook and Instagram, in 2022 and has not been reinstated.

In January 2025, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg acknowledged that the company had censored content under pressure from government officials and said its systems had resulted in “too many mistakes and too much censorship.”

Google also acknowledged restricting Covid-related content under pressure from the Biden administration, according to disclosures made during a congressional investigation led by Rep. Jim Jordan (R-Ohio).

Jordan described the issue as part of a broader “censorship-industrial complex,” examining coordination between federal agencies and major technology platforms.

For more information, read the full article here.

The post Children’s Health Defense wins settlement in censorship case appeared first on Sharyl Attkisson.

 

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