WASHINGTON: The US Supreme Court ordered lower courts to review two Republican-backed state laws that set restrictions on social media companies’ content moderation, avoiding a ruling on their constitutional validity.
Tech industry trade groups, which were pleased with the decision, had contested the laws enacted in 2021 by conservative Republican legislators in Florida and Texas. These laws were part of a larger effort against perceived anti-conservative bias by major platforms like Facebook, owned by Meta, and X, formerly known as Twitter.
The companies refuted claims that they were censoring conservative views under the pretext of content moderation, arguing that the laws infringed on the platforms’ own First Amendment rights. The Supreme Court did not decide on the constitutionality of such state legislation, leaving the laws in limbo and instructing lower courts to conduct a comprehensive review.
Florida’s law prevents social media platforms from removing content posted by politicians, a measure passed after former president Donald Trump was suspended from Twitter and Facebook following the January 6, 2021, attack on the US Capitol. Texas’s law prohibits the removal of content based on “viewpoint,” aiming to counter what conservatives perceive as censorship by tech platforms like Facebook and YouTube against right-wing perspectives. Neither law has been enacted due to ongoing litigation.
The challenges to these laws were brought by associations representing major tech companies, the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) and NetChoice. They argue that the First Amendment grants platforms the freedom to manage content as they see fit.
CCIA president Matt Schruers expressed approval of the Supreme Court’s decision, emphasizing that the government should not influence public debate in its favor. “There is nothing more Orwellian than government attempting to dictate what speech should be carried, whether it is a newspaper or a social media site,” he further said.
This decision follows the Supreme Court’s rejection last week of a Republican-led effort to limit government interaction with social media companies for content moderation. This previous decision favored President Joe Biden’s administration and top government agencies, enabling them to continue notifying major platforms, including Facebook and X, about content they consider false or hateful.
