In 2021, Andy Slavit was the Biden White House’s senior adviser in charge of its response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Remember, when Biden became president, we were in a spiraling nightmare. More than 400,000 people had already died, and no one was quite sure where the virus was taking us. Eventually a million Americans would die.

Joe Biden and his team wanted, as did Big Pharma, to vaccinate everyone as the solution. Vaccines had to be required — or you might be fired. Put on your mask, shut down schools and businesses, and hunker down.

Some disagreed. The vaccine was unproven — and possibly dangerous; masking was fraught with question marks; and a range of alternative drugs were worth discussing. Many just did not trust the judgment of the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. A dissident anti-vaccine culture grew. Slavit’s job was to stop it — on social media. Correct or silence those who opposed government policy.

The government began to pressure Facebook, YouTube and X/Twitter to get onboard with the government policies. To disagree with the central authorities meant you clearly were providing “misinformation.” Of course, there was a lot of unreliable information floating around in a confusing time. Even the former president suggested that drinking bleach might help.

But in an attempt to homogenize thinking about how to treat COVID, what ensued against the media platforms where millions now gather daily to rant, rave, discuss, listen, lie, inform and swear was, according to a federal judge, “a far-reaching and widespread censorship campaign” by high-ranking federal officials against Americans who disagreed.

Gee, in my naivete, I thought the very purpose of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was to prevent government from interfering with the people’s right to reach conclusions by hearing everyone talk — including government — but especially those who disagree with........

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