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The Supreme Court on Monday vacated existing rulings on two state laws aimed at preventing tech companies from banning users for potentially harmful rhetoric, extending the debate on whether Republicans can combat what they perceive as “censorship” by major social media platforms.
The Court returned the issue to lower courts for further examination, indicating that previous rulings did not adequately address whether the content moderation laws would be unconstitutional under all circumstances.
Texas and Florida have enacted legislation that Republican lawmakers claim will prevent tech companies such as Facebook parent Meta, X (formerly known as Twitter), and Google’s YouTube from suppressing conservative viewpoints. The states argue that the laws ensure equal access for all users, while the tech companies, represented by groups like NetChoice, assert that the laws infringe on their free speech rights.
Justice Elena Kagan wrote the majority opinion, with no dissenting justices. She stated that the lower courts had focused on the laws’ impact on the largest social media platforms, neglecting to consider their effect on “other kinds of websites and apps” such as Uber or Etsy.
“Today, we vacate both decisions for reasons separate from the First Amendment merits, because neither Court of Appeals properly considered the facial nature of NetChoice’s challenge,” Kagan wrote.
The laws in Texas and Florida were introduced in 2021 after former President Donald Trump was banned from Twitter for inflammatory posts about the 2020 presidential election results and the January 6, 2021 Capitol riot. Trump, who is now the leading Republican candidate in the 2024 presidential race, was allowed to return to Twitter in November 2022 after Elon Musk acquired the platform for about $44 billion.