Supreme Court sends social media review case back to lower courts | Wilnesh News

The Supreme Court on Monday vacated existing rulings surrounding two state laws aimed at preventing tech companies from banning users for potentially harmful speech. The move prolongs the debate over whether Republicans can fight what they see as “censorship” through major social media platforms.

The court sent the issue back to a lower court for further review, finding that previous rulings failed to properly explore whether content moderation laws are unconstitutional in all circumstances.

Texas and Florida have passed legislation that Republican lawmakers claim would prevent tech companies including Facebook parent Meta; X, formerly known as Twitter; and Google’s YouTube, from suppressing conservative views. States argue that the laws ensure equal access to the platforms for all users, while tech companies, represented by groups such as NetChoice, say the laws infringe on the companies’ free speech rights.

Justice Elena Kagan wrote the majority opinion, with no justices dissenting. She wrote that lower courts had previously debated how the laws would apply to the largest social media platforms like Facebook, but in doing so, they failed to consider how it might affect “other types of websites and apps,” such as Uber Or Essie.

“Today, we reverse both rulings for reasons unrelated to the First Amendment merits because neither appeals court properly considered the facial nature of NetChoice’s challenges,” Kagan wrote.

Texas and Florida introduced the laws in 2021 after President Donald Trump was banned for inflammatory posts surrounding the 2020 presidential election results and the subsequent Capitol riots on January 6, 2021 Twitter.

The laws in Texas and Florida were enacted before Tesla and SpaceX CEO Elon Musk acquired Twitter in 2022 for about $44 billion. Return to Twitter.