Supreme Court sends cases on Texas, Florida regulating social media platforms back to lower courts

The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday to keep a hold on efforts in Texas and Florida to limit how social media platforms regulate content posted by their users.

The justices, in a 9-0 ruling, returned the cases to lower courts in challenges from trade association NetChoice for Facebook, TikTok, X, YouTube and others.

While the details vary, both laws aimed to address complaints that the social media companies were liberal-leaning and censored users based on their viewpoints, especially those on the political right, according to the Associated Press. 

The Florida and Texas laws were signed by Republican governors following decisions by Facebook and Twitter, now X, to ban then-President Donald Trump over his posts related to the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot and his supporters.

Justice Elena Kagan wrote the majority opinion, in Moody v. NetChoice, which is connected to NetChoice v. Paxton. Both cases are related to whether states can enact laws prohibiting social media platforms from moderating content.

“Our unanimous agreement regarding NetChoice’s failure to show that a sufficient number of its members engage in constitutionally protected expression prevents us from accepting NetChoice’s argument regarding these provisions. In the lower courts, NetChoice did not even try to show how these disclosure provisions chill each platform’s speech," Kagan wrote.