By Andrew Chung

The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday maintained a block on restrictions imposed by lower courts on the ability of President Joe Biden's administration to encourage social media companies to remove content deemed misinformation, including about elections and COVID-19.

Conservative Justice Samuel Alito temporarily put on hold a preliminary injunction constraining how the White House and certain other federal officials communicate with social media platforms pending the administration's appeal to the Supreme Court.

The decision keeps the matter on hold until Oct. 20. This gives the justices more time to consider the administration's request to block an injunction issued by a lower court that had concluded that administration officials likely coerced the companies into censoring certain posts, in violation of the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment, which protects free speech.

(Reporting by Andrew Chung in New York; Editing by Will Dunham)