Supreme Court seeks U.S. views on social-media laws in Florida and Texas

In a First Amendment showdown, the U.S. Supreme Court asked the Biden administration for input on Florida and Texas laws that would sharply restrict the editorial discretion of the largest socialmedia platforms.

Two industry groups are challenging the Republicanbacked laws, saying they would impose onerous requirements and put platforms at risk of being overrun by spam and bullying. The Florida statute requires a “thorough rationale” for every content-moderation decision. The Texas law bars large platforms from discriminating based on viewpoint.

Florida, Texas and the trade associations — which represent Meta Platforms, Alphabet Google and Twitter — are asking the Supreme Court to intervene.

The laws “pose a grave threat to how social media websites provide their services to users,” trade groups NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association argued in the Florida case. “People use social media websites, and companies advertise on them, precisely because websites spend significant time and resources organizing, presenting and sorting the vast amount of information on their services.”

Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and Texas Gov. Greg Abbott say the measures are needed to keep conservative voices from being silenced. “If Big Tech censors enforce rules inconsistently, to discriminate in favor of the dominant Silicon Valley ideology, they will now be held accountable,” DeSantis said when he signed his state’s bill into law in May 2021.

Abbott decried “a dangerous movement by social media companies to silence conservative viewpoints and ideas” when he signed the Texas measure into law four months later.

The justices directed their request to Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar, the administration’s top Supreme Court lawyer. The high court is already set to consider stripping companies of some of their legal immunity by allowing lawsuits when platforms recommend dangerous content to their users.

In a separate case, the court on Monday refused to revive a lawsuit over Vimeo’s removal of six videos that claimed vaccines cause autism.

The Atlanta-based U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit blocked most of Florida’s law as probably violating the First Amendment. The New Orleansbased 5th Circuit upheld the Texas law but left the measure on hold to allow time for an appeal to the Supreme Court.

The Florida law includes a dozen major provisions, including the requirement that platforms provide a detailed explanation of any decision that “deplatforms,” “censors” or “shadow bans” any user. The

11th Circuit called that provision “particularly onerous.”

The law also bars platforms from banning political candidates or “journalistic enterprises.” As with Texas, the Florida law applies only to the biggest social-media companies.