As Florida debates banning minors from social media it’s defending another policy to prevent those companies from censoring adults. The U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments Monday over a 2021 Florida law that punishes companies that try to moderate—or censor—certain types of speech.
State Attorney General Ashley Moody says no one entity should decide what sort of speech is good or bad.
“You can’t decide you’re going to censor one political viewpoint or type of speech over another and do that by taking someone off your platform, pushing priority of their posts down, and censoring speech," Moody said, speaking to reporters outside of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington D.C. following oral arguments.
Justices are also weighing a Texas law similar to Florida's.
The laws from Florida and Texas being challenged were born out of concerns that conservative views were being deprioritized on the sites. Moody cited a 2021 incident where a COVID conversation hosted by Gov. DeSantis was removed by YouTube for spreading what the site said was “misinformation.” Guests on the panel questioned the use of masks during the pandemic.
“When the platform didn’t agree, they wiped that from the platform after holding themselves out to be a place where users could generate content to share opinions and viewpoints. That’s so important when you’re a free society," said Moody while also calling out the Biden Administration for siding with the social media companies.
During arguments justices appeared to be conflicted on how far to go when it comes to regulating social media companies and their speech—some justices compared the issue to that of newspaper editorials, noting that those too are moderated.
The arguments come amid a broader cultural debate about the role of social media as a public square and growing concerns about how much power it has to influence. The arguments also come as Florida considers a bill that would automatically ban social media accounts for kids under 16. The bill could be vetoed amid Gov. Ron DeSantis' concerns that its unconstitutional.
