The U.S. Supreme Court Monday heard arguments over laws passed by Republican-led states that could affect how Facebook, TikTok, X and other giant social media platforms regulate content posted by their users.
The majority of justices seemed skeptical of the constitutionality of laws enacted by Florida and Texas that aim to force social media companies to change policies that some right-wing users say are used to systematically silence them.
Chief Justice John Roberts said the First Amendment puts a “thumb on the scale when that question is asked” about decisions made by private companies, as opposed to the government itself.
Justice Brett Kavanaugh, a conservative who sometimes sides with relative moderates like Roberts, compared the cases to a 1974 decision that gave newspapers the right to decide which opinions to highlight.
Only the three most conservative jurists, Justice Samuel Alito, Justice Clarence Thomas and Justice Neil Gorsuch, appeared to be considering giving the green light for the laws to go into effect.
The court, which held a marathon four-hour oral argument session, is likely to make its decision in the coming months before the end of its term in June.
The controversial Florida and Texas laws were passed in the months after Facebook and X, formerly known as Twitter, banned Trump from their sites over his posts related to the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol by a violent mob of his extremist supporters.
Conservatives say those decisions are emblematic of an industry that is dominated by liberals and seeks to prevent right-wing views from being widely heard.
Trade associations representing the Big Tech companies sued in federal court, claiming that the proposed laws violate the platforms’ free speech rights to shape their platforms as they see fit.
Appeals courts have delivered mixed verdicts, with one federal appeals court striking down Florida’s statute, while another upheld the Texas law.
The Biden administration is siding with the challengers, who say the government has no business telling private social media companies how to regulate content on their sites.
Without that right, the social media companies say their sites would quickly devolve into a hellscape of hate speech and defamation.
They sharply dispute the claims by Republicans that they discriminate against conservative voices, noting that many of the most popular content-creators on their platforms are far right-wing figures.
