Supreme Court Debates Social Media, Deplatforming

The Supreme Court has blocked a Texas law that would have stopped social media companies from banning users based on political views. A 5-4 majority of judges said the law violated the First Amendment.

In this case, the right to free speech in question is not that of individual users, but that of the social media companies. They had argued that they have the right to decide what content does and doesn't appear on their platforms.

The verdict doesn't throw the law out. Instead, it means it cannot take effect until ongoing lawsuits about its measures have been resolved. Because it was an emergency ruling, the judges did not provide an explanation of their decision.

No 'Censorship' Allowed

Under the state law, any social media platform with more than 50 million users would not be allowed to:

censor a user, a user's expression, or a user's ability to receive the expression of another person based on: (1) the viewpoint of the user or another person; (2) the viewpoint represented in the user's expression or another person's expression; or (3) a user's geographic location in this state or any part of this state.

The law defined "censor" as:

to block, ban, remove, deplatform, demonetize, de-boost, restrict, deny equal access or visibility to, or otherwise discriminate against expression. (Source: texas.gov)

A tech industry group that brought the challenge to the law said that if companies were not allowed to exercise editorial control, "platforms will become havens of the vilest expression imaginable: pro-Nazi speech, hostile foreign government propaganda, pro-terrorist-organization speech, and countless more examples." (Source: theguardian.com)

Constitutional Concerns

A similar law in Florida was blocked by the state's appeals court before taking effect. It's now likely both the Texas and Florida laws will go through further court appeals, with one or both winding up in the Supreme Court for a ruling on constitutionality. That would likely decide whether such laws are allowed anywhere in the country.

Ultimately it may come down to an interpretation of how the first amendment applies with the modern tech world. Supporters of the bill argue that social media platforms are so dominant that somebody who is barred from the site or has posts deleted cannot exercise their right to free speech. Opponents say the first amendment only covers laws restricting speech and doesn't guarantee anyone a particular platform.

What's Your Opinion?

Do you support the Texas law? How do you think the first amendment should apply to social media? Does the size of the company concerned make any difference?