Solicitor General Elizabeth Prelogar wrote a brief Monday saying conflicting decisions from circuit courtsover similar laws in Texas and Florida warrant a Supreme Court review.
The two laws passed by the GOP-led states aim to prohibit social media companies from banning users based on political views.
Those laws wouldlimit companies from being able to moderate content and users, even if they violate the website’s terms and conditions.
Prelogar said thecourt should reverse the 5th Circuit court’s decision to uphold the Texas law, arguing that the companies have First Amendment protections to carry out content moderation.
“The platforms’ content-moderation activities are protected by the First Amendment, and the content-moderation and individualized-explanation requirements impermissibly burden those protected activities,” she wrote.
Unlike the 5th Circuit, the 11th Circuit ruled to block Florida’s similar law from taking effect.
The conflicting opinions set the cases up to be heard by the Supreme Court.
Two tech industry groups, the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) and NetChoice, are leading cases against the laws and have asked the Supreme Court to hear them.
X and Tesla owner Elon Musk said he plans to travel to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg’s house Monday night for their potential “cage fight.” “For the Tesla FSD test drive in Palo Alto tonight, I will ask the car to drive to [Zuckerberg’s] house,” Musk posted Monday on X, formerly known as Twitter. “Will also test latest X livestream video, so you can monitor our adventure in real-time!” He also said if Zuckerberg answers the door, …
YouTube on Tuesday announced it is creating a new framework to crack down on medical misinformation on the platform. “In the years since we began our efforts to make YouTube a destination for high-quality health content, we’ve learned critical lessons about developing Community Guidelines in line with local and global health authority guidance on topics that pose serious real-world risks, such as misinformation on COVID-19, …
Rep. Don Bacon (R-Neb.) said Tuesday that he was the victim of a hacking attack by Chinese spies after hackers reportedly also managed to read emails belonging to State Department employees. “I thank the FBI for notifying me that the CCP hacked into my personal and campaign emails from May 15th to June 16th of this year,” Bacon wrote Monday on X, the social media platform formerly known as Twitter, referring to the Chinese …
The Atlantic Council is holding a virtual event about encrypted messaging apps on Wednesday at 1 p.m.
The Federal Communications Commission's Technology Advisory Council will meet Thursday at 10 a.m.
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