Supreme Court takes on Texas, Florida laws targeting social media companies
New York PostSep 29, 2023
On Friday, SCOTUS announced that it will weigh in on the constitutionality of laws in Florida and Texas that seek to limit social media platforms' ability to suppress content.
The two laws reportedly aim to prevent tech companies like Facebook, TikTok, and X — formerly Twitter — from censoring alternative viewpoints.
SCOTUS will hear cases seeking to hold social media companies accountable for blatant censorship of people with differing politics. Social media companies are granted numerous protections that shield them from liability; however, these companies arbitrarily act like editors rather than open platforms. Social media engages in one-sided censorship, and states have every right to prohibit this violation of free speech.
This case certainly involves questions about the First Amendment, but not in the way Republicans think. The constitution protects against the government regulating the speech of private citizens and companies, meaning that far-right lawmakers can't control content. Nonetheless, social media companies can moderate speech on their platforms however they see fit, as they have to contain trolls and hate speech.
There's a 5% chance that the American Civil Liberties Union will argue that hate speech shouldn't be protected by the First Amendment before 2024, according to the Metaculus prediction community.