By Ashkhen Kazaryan and Ashley Haek
A 2023 complaint filed by Missouri, Louisiana, and other individual plaintiffs against the Biden administration argued that executive branch officials “coerced, threatened, and pressured social-media platforms to censor disfavored speakers and viewpoints by using threats of adverse government action,” thus violating the First Amendment.
That lawsuit alleged that the Biden administration used informal government pressure to shape or suppress speech in an attempt to avoid traditional constitutional scrutiny — a practice referred to by legal experts as “jawboning.”
But it now appears that Missouri Attorney General Andrew Bailey, whose name tops the 2023 complaint, is attempting to do just that.
Last week, the attorney general sent a set of formal demand letters to Google, Microsoft, OpenAI, and Meta, alleging, among other things, that their AI chatbots ranked President Donald Trump as the most antisemitic of the last five U.S. presidents.
In his press release, Bailey stated, “We must aggressively push back against this new wave of censorship targeted at our President,” adding, “Missourians deserve the truth, not AI-generated propaganda masquerading as fact.”
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Ashkhen Kazaryan is a Senior Legal Fellow at The Future of Free Speech, where she leads initiatives to protect free expression and shape policies that uphold the First Amendment in the digital age.
Ashley Haek
Ashley Haek is a Communications Coordinator at The Future of Free Speech.