The Supreme Court on Monday overturned existing rulings on two state laws designed to stop tech corporations from blocking users for potentially harmful rhetoric, a move that extends a debate over whether Republicans will find a way to combat what they see as “censorship” of leading social media platforms.
The court remanded the matter to the lower courts for further review, arguing that the previous rulings had not adequately examined whether the content moderation laws were unconstitutional under all circumstances.
Texas and Florida have passed laws that Republican lawmakers say are designed to stop tech corporations like Facebook parent Meta, X (formerly Twitter) and Google's YouTube from suppressing conservative opinions. The states argue the laws will ensure all users have equal access to the platforms, while the tech corporations, represented by groups like NetChoice, say they violate the businesses' right to free speech.
Justice Elena Kagan wrote the bulk opinion, and no justices dissented. She wrote that lower courts had previously argued how the laws applied to the most important social media platforms, corresponding to Facebook, without considering how it would affect “other types of websites and apps,” corresponding to Above or Etsy.
“Today, we reverse both decisions for reasons unrelated to First Amendment merit, because neither appellate court adequately considered the prima facie nature of NetChoice's challenge,” Kagan wrote.
Texas and Florida introduced the laws in 2021 after former President Donald Trump was banned from Twitter for posting inflammatory posts concerning the 2020 presidential election results and the following Capitol riots on January 6, 2021. Trump is now the leading Republican candidate within the 2024 presidential election.
The Texas and Florida laws were passed before Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk acquired Twitter for about $44 billion in 2022. In November of that 12 months, Musk allowed Trump to return to Twitter.
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