May 24, 2022
A three-judge panel of the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals has rejected much of Florida’s social media law.
Florida’s social media law aims to prevent social media companies from restricting users’ political speech. It also requires major technology platforms to provide information about how they moderate content on their platforms.
The unanimous decision was announced by Circuit Judge Kevin Newsom. In its ruling, the court stated that parts of the law concerning political speech violated social media companies’ First Amendment right to decide what to publish.
However, the federal appeals court reviewed part of the law that requires major technology platforms such as Meta, Facebook, Google and Twitter to disclose the standards for content moderation on their platforms.
A spokesman for Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, Bryan Griffin, called the decision “stupefying” and said the governor’s office was considering an appeal.
“The First Amendment protects platforms and their right to moderate content as they see fit – and the government can’t force them to host content they don’t want,” NetChoice Vice President Carl Szabo said in a statement after the ruling.
NetChoice is a public policy advocacy organization that represents top tech platforms such as Facebook, Google and others.
The sources for this piece include an article in Reuters.
