Courthouse News reports:
Texas and Florida are behind the two laws now before the high court. The laws sprang up after former President Donald Trump’s ban from Twitter and suspension from Facebook. While the sites frame their actions as editorial discretion, lawmakers in the states have likened it to unconstitutional censorship. After considering challenges to the the laws at their Friday conference, the justices asked U.S. Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar to weigh in — a signal the court could be interested in taking up the cases in the future.
In Florida, SB 7072 would require social media companies to disclose how and when platforms censor speech. Social media companies would also be forced to host speech they disagree with and face fines of $250,000 a day for removing the accounts of statewide political candidates. With similar goals, lawmakers in Texas want to label social media companies as common carriers — companies providing public telecommunications facilities. This would regulate their ability to remove users from their sites.
Read the full article.
The Supreme Court asked the Biden administration on Monday to weigh in on a legal battle between conservative states and social media companies over content moderation laws. @KelseyReichmann https://t.co/pQ3g4jBjoD
— Courthouse News (@CourthouseNews) January 23, 2023