Supreme Court blocks Texas law restricting social content moderation
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In a narrow vote, the Supreme Court has blocked a Texas law that would have stopped social media platforms from most content moderation.
Texas had argued that limiting the platforms' ability to moderate content was necessary to protect the free speech of conservatives.
âOnce these businesses became âdominant digital platforms,â they began to deny access to their services based on their customersâ viewpoints,â argued Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton.
The Supreme Court justices put that measure on hold in NetChoice v. Paxton, allowing a constitutional challenge to proceed in a lower court. That came on a 5-4 vote, with Justices Alito, Thomas, Gorsuch and Kagan dissenting.
The law was set to fundamentally change the operations at the biggest social media platforms, including Facebook (NASDAQ:FB), Twitter (NYSE:TWTR) and Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL), with ripple effects likely for Snap (SNAP) and Pinterest (PINS).
Attorneys for technology groups representing the companies had argued that the Supreme Court has "repeatedly recognized that private entities have the right under the First Amendment to determine whether and how to disseminate speech."
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