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Chris Marchese, director of the NetChoice Litigation Center, (left), looks on as Matt Shrews, president and CEO of the Computer & Communications Industry Association, (center), speaks to reporters outside the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, DC, on February 26, 2024.
Andrew Caballero Reynolds | AFP | Getty Images
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday struck down existing rulings on two state laws aimed at preventing tech companies from banning users for potentially harmful speech, a move that will prolong a debate over whether Republicans can fight what they see as “censorship” by major social media platforms.
The Supreme Court argued that its previous decisions did not adequately consider whether content moderation laws were unconstitutional under all circumstances, and sent the issue back to a lower court for further consideration.
Republican lawmakers in Texas and Florida have passed bills designed to stop tech companies like Facebook parent Meta, formerly Twitter’s X, and Google’s YouTube from suppressing conservative voices. The states argue that the laws are meant to ensure all users have equal access to these platforms, but tech companies, represented by groups like NetChoice, argue that the laws infringe on the companies’ free speech rights.
Justice Elena Kagan wrote the majority opinion, with no other justices dissenting. She noted that lower courts have previously debated how the law applies to large social media platforms like Facebook, but have not considered “other kinds of websites and apps,” such as Uber Or Etsy.
“Today, we reverse both decisions for reasons unrelated to First Amendment law, because neither Court of Appeals adequately considered the facial nature of NetChoice’s challenges,” Kagan wrote.
Texas and Florida introduced the legislation in 2021 after former President Donald Trump was banned from Twitter for his inflammatory posts about the 2020 presidential election results and the subsequent riot at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Trump is currently the leading Republican candidate in the 2024 presidential election.
The Texas and Florida laws were enacted before Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk bought Twitter for about $44 billion in 2022. Musk allowed Trump to return to the company in November of that year.