Opening the Spigot

Conservatives want to limit social media companies’ power to control content

- Maxwell Adler

The right-wing crusade to punish social media companies for supposedly discriminating against their conservative users is reaching a major inflection point, with the US Supreme Court weighing whether to temporarily block a Texas law regulating how the companies can moderate the content on their services. If it ultimately stands up, the law would represent a fundamental shift in how the US legal system interprets the First Amendment. It would also rewrite the rules of the modern internet.

The legal battle emerges from the intensifying dispute over the role of tech in American political and cultural life. Last year lawmakers in Texas and Florida passed similar bills attempting to limit the ability of web services to ban users or remove content they say violates their standards, saying companies apply their rules unfairly.

Historically, the right of private companies to act in this way has not been in question. Although the First Amendment prohibits censorship by the government, it does nothing to restrict the actions of private companies. In fact, the right of news papers, book publishers, and other media outlets to decide what to disseminate—or not to disseminate—has generally been considered a critical aspect of free speech law.

Internet companies have further protection to make decisions on content moderation under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996, which guards them from lawsuits related to user-generated content, even if they make editorial decisions about what kinds of posts they allow.