A three-judge panel excoriated the 'mob-like' Biden administration over its 'strong-arm' tactics to bully social media companies into complying with censorship requests, which "time and time again" prove to be true.

The judicial smackdown took place during a Thursday hearing in front of the Fifth Circuit Federal Court of Appeals, which heard oral arguments over the administration's appeal of an injunction barring the US government from communication with social media giants in order to censor protected speech.

Representing the government was attorney Daniel Tenny - who had quite the trio of pissed off judges on his hands. At one point, Judge Jennifer Walker Elrod compared the Biden administration to the mafia before walking it back.

"In these movies that we see with the mob … they don't say and spell out things, but they have these ongoing relationships," she said, adding "They never actually say 'go do this or else you're going to have this consequence.' But everybody just knows."

"I'm certainly not equating the federal government with anybody in illegal organized crime but there are certain relationships that people know things without always saying the 'or else,'" Elrod continued.

She had earlier noted that the Biden administration had a "very close working relationship" with social media giants, and browbeated them like "a supervisor complaining about a worker" until they got their way.

"What appears to be in the record are these irate messages from time to time from high ranking government officials that say, 'You didn't do this yet!' — and that's my toning down the language— 'Why haven't you done this yet?'" she said. "It's like 'jump' and 'how high?'" said Elrod.