Florida’s Big Tech law on censorship is currently blocked. But the Supreme Court could determine whether Florida’s social media law is constitutional.
Protocol reported that NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) reached a deal with Florida to ask the Supreme Court to step in.
NetChoice was a representative from TikTok and other companies like Amazon, Google, Facebook and others. They argued that Florida’s law is not constitutional.
“There are so many provisions between the Texas and Florida laws that are unconstitutional, and states are picking and choosing. Sometimes they’re doing a straight copy-paste,” NetChoice attorney Chris Marchese said, according to Protocol. “The sooner the Supreme Court lays out some guardrails on that, the better it’ll be for everyone.”
NewsBusters earlier in the year reported that NetChoice was favored by the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals and had blocked a portion of the law.
“We hold that it is substantially likely that social-media companies — even the biggest ones — are ‘private actors’ whose rights the First Amendment protects,” Judge Kevin Newsom wrote in the unanimous opinion.
Judge added that, “Put simply and with minor exceptions,” the government couldn’t tell private persons or entities what to say or how they should speak it.
The judge also rejected the argument that social media platforms acted as “common carriers” and therefore had a greater responsibility to provide a platform for users.
“Social-media platforms have never acted like common carriers,” the judge wrote. “While it’s true that social-media platforms generally hold themselves open to all members of the public, they require users, as preconditions of access, to accept their terms of service and abide by their community standards.”
The court also ruled in favor of the law and held that social media platforms must allow banned users to access their data stored on the platform’s servers for at least 60 days.
Ashley Moody, Florida Attorney General, said that the ruling was a win.
“We are pleased the court recognized the state’s authority to rein in social media companies and upheld major portions of Florida’s law leading the way in doing so,” she tweetedAt the time. “We will continue to vigorously defend Florida’s authority to demand accountability from Big Tech.”
Conservatives are being attacked.Tell your representatives to demand Big Tech is held accountable to the First Amendment and provide equal treatment for conservatives. If you have been censored, contact us using CensorTrack’s Contact formPlease help us make Big Tech more accountable.
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