September 27, 2022
The State of Florida has asked the United States Supreme Court to uphold its social media law, which prohibits internet platforms from barring political candidates, restricts government purchases of internet services if the company has been accused, but not necessarily found guilty, of violating an antitrust law, and prohibits various forms of content moderation.
On May 27, 2021, NetChoice and CCIA filed a lawsuit against the law. On June 4, the court that heard the case issued an injunction freezing the law and a permanent injunction on June 30, 2021, and the US Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the injunction blocking the law in May 2022.
Ashley Moody, Florida’s attorney general, filed a Writ of Certiorari requesting that the Supreme Court consider “whether the First Amendment prohibits a state from requiring social media companies to host third-party communications and from regulating the time, place and manner in which they do so.”
“We agree with Florida that the case should be heard by the U.S. Supreme Court, and we are confident that websites’ First Amendment rights will be upheld,” said Carl Szabo, vice president of NetChoice, the technology industry trade group which include Facebook and Google.
The sources for this piece include an article in TheRegister.
