The Supreme Court on Monday overturned two court decisions regarding Republican-backed laws in Florida and Texas aimed at limiting the ability of social media companies to moderate content on their platforms.
The Supreme Court is sending both cases back to lower courts for further review, saying the lower courts failed to adequately analyze First Amendment challenges to the laws.
“The question in such a case is whether the unconstitutional applications of a law are substantial compared to its constitutional applications,” Justice Elena Kagan wrote in the decision. “To make that judgment, a court must determine the full set of applications of a law, evaluate which are constitutional and which are not, and compare them with each other. “None of the courts conducted the necessary investigation.”
Both laws were adopted in 2021 and were intended to address complaints from conservatives who believed social media companies like facebook and x (formerly twitter) were illegally censoring conservative political views. Concerns were heightened when facebook and x suspended former President Donald Trump’s accounts following the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol building.
The laws were intended to prevent social media companies from removing certain political posts or accounts. The cases had the potential to determine whether social media companies should be able to determine how to moderate hate speech, election misinformation and spam on their own platforms.
NetChoice, a tech industry lobbying group, sued to overturn the laws, arguing they violated the social media platforms’ free speech rights. The group argued the laws give the government too much power over content posted on privately owned social media platforms.
Lower courts ruled differently on the laws, with key measures of the Florida law blocked while the Texas law was upheld. However, neither law ever went into effect and both were put on hold pending the Supreme Court's decision.
