The U.S. Supreme Court sent Texas and Florida’s social media censorship laws back to lower courts for further review. Houston Public Media’s Andrew Schneider says justices warned the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals that they’d gotten their interpretation of the First Amendment wrong.
The Texas and Florida laws penalize large social media platforms for banning users, allegedly because of their political beliefs. Justices declined to rule on whether the laws are unconstitutional, but they told the 5th Circuit that the First Amendment does protect social media platforms. Samir Jain is with the Center for Democracy and Technology, which filed an amicus brief in the case.
“And so, I think it does suggest that social media companies have quite a bit of discretion around their content moderation decisions that states and other governments can’t interfere with.”
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton issued a statement pledging to continue to fight what he described as, quote, Big Tech censorship.
I’m Andrew Schneider in Houston.