WASHINGTON—The U.S. Supreme Court today agreed to hear First Amendment challenges to Florida and Texas laws that regulate social media companies–Moody v. NetChoice and NetChoice v. Paxton, respectively. Both laws limit the power of the largest social media companies to moderate speech on their platforms, and impose transparency provisions requiring the companies to disclose certain information to the public. The Knight Institute filed amicus briefs in both cases when they were on appeal to the Fifth and Eleventh Circuits. Those courts issued rulings that were deeply divided on whether the First Amendment allows the government to tell social media companies what content they may or may not publish. 

The following can be attributed to Jameel Jaffer, executive director at the Knight First Amendment Institute. 

“These cases could completely reshape the digital public sphere. The question of what limits the First Amendment imposes on legislatures’ ability to regulate social media is immensely important—for speech, and for democracy as well. It’s difficult to think of any other recent First Amendment cases in which the stakes were so high.”

The following can be attributed to Scott Wilkens, senior counsel at the Knight First Amendment Institute. 

“These cases provide the Court with an important opportunity to clarify the constitutional limits on legislatures’ power to regulate social media. How the Court deals with the cases will have broad implications for free speech online and for democracy.”

Read the Knight Institute’s Eleventh Circuit amicus brief in Moody v. NetChoice here.

Read the Knight Institute’s Fifth Circuit amicus brief in NetChoice v. Paxton here.

For more information, contact: Adriana Lamirande, adriana.lamirande@knightcolumbia.org.