Today, Public Knowledge filed an amicus curiae brief in two cases challenging unconstitutional state laws: Moody v. NetChoice (Florida) and NetChoice v. Paxton (Texas). (As the two cases raise similar issues, the Supreme Court is having them argued together.)
The brief demonstrates that social media platforms cannot be designated as “common carriers” as a way for politicians in those states to promote the speech of their political allies at the expense of social media users nationwide, and that forbidding social media platforms from enforcing their content moderation policies violates the First Amendment.
The following may be attributed to John Bergmayer, Legal Director of Public Knowledge:
“In a fit of anger directed at those whose politics they disagree with, the states of Texas and Florida enacted laws designed to promote the speech of their political allies, by making it illegal for social media platforms to enforce their content moderation policies. They claim that these laws promote free speech. In fact, these unconstitutional efforts violate the First Amendment many times over and would harm social media users nationwide.
“These laws would harm and silence vulnerable social media users nationwide, and would mandate that social media platforms publish and distribute Holocaust denial, white supremacist content, dangerous medical misinformation, lies about the time and place of elections, and more. To the extent that the states deny this would happen, they simply misunderstand – or misrepresent – their own laws.
“The states purport to designate certain social media platforms – the ones whose editorial policies they disagree with – as “common carriers,” a legal category applicable to transmission services like broadband and telephone service. As leading advocates for common carriage treatment of infrastructure services like broadband providers, Public Knowledge’s brief explains how the states misunderstand and misapply this legal category, and how this transparent effort to bypass the Constitution and decades of Supreme Court precedent fail.”
You may view the brief for more information.
Members of the media may contact Communications Director Shiva Stella with inquiries, interview requests, or to join the Public Knowledge press list at shiva@publicknowledge.org or 405-249-9435.