Biden administration seeks stay of judge’s social media order, saying it could cause ‘grave harm’

WASHINGTON (AP) — Biden administration attorneys say a Louisiana-based federal judge’s order broadly limiting executive branch communications with social media companies could cause “grave harm” by preventing the government from “engaging in a vast range of lawful and responsible conduct.” The lawyers filed a motion Thursday with a federal appeals court. The request to stay the order was the administration’s first substantive response to a July 4 ruling by U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty in Monroe. Doughty issued an injunction blocking multiple government agencies and administration officials from meeting with social media companies for the purpose of encouraging the “removal, deletion, suppression, or reduction of content containing protected free speech.”