A U.S. appeals court on Friday temporarily blocked a lower court order that had sharply limited certain Biden administration officials' and agencies' contacts with social media companies while it considers the administration's appeal.

The ruling from the New Orleans-based 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals means that the administration is not bound, for now, by a July 6 order by U.S. District Judge Terry Doughty in Monroe, Louisiana, who found that officials' efforts to limit the spread of posts they considered to be misinformation on social media violated the right to free speech under the U.S. Constitution's First Amendment.

(Reporting By Brendan Pierson in New York)