The Biden administration is taking the fight over social media censorship to the Supreme Court, asking the justices Thursday to overturn a lower court ruling that forbade the White House and FBI from trying to coerce platforms to take down content the government doesn’t like.

The appeal comes on a case that produced damning details about the White House’s efforts to control social media messaging, particularly surrounding the coronavirus pandemic, and the lengths the tech companies went to bow to the government’s demands.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled last week that those efforts crossed the line into coercion, which amounted to illegal censorship of Americans’ viewpoints. The injunction specifically ordered White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the FBI to cut it out.

The administration said it was persuading, not coercing.

“Of course, the government cannot punish people for expressing different views. Nor can it threaten to punish the media or other intermediaries for disseminating disfavored speech. But there is a fundamental distinction between persuasion and coercion,” Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar said in her petition asking the justices to step in.

She said the government will struggle to draw the line between where it can offer its thoughts about what social media companies can allow and what constitutes illegal pressure.

The case was brought by Missouri and Louisiana, as well as several private parties, all of whom said they had speech that was censored, thanks to federal government action.

• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.