SCOTUS Appears Divided On 1st Amendment Social Media Cases
(Washington, DC) -- The Supreme Court appears to be divided after hearing arguments in cases involving how social media companies handle online content. The court is examining Republican-backed laws in Texas and Florida that were put in place over claims TikTok, Facebook, YouTube and others dislike conservative speech. The laws were enacted in 2021 after the companies banned former President Trump from their platforms. Some of the justices expressed concerned the laws could be cover other platforms like Uber, Google and Amazon Web Services. The social media companies have compared themselves to newspapers who can't be told which information to publish. But supporters of the new laws argue the companies are like telephone operators since they are transmitting content created by others, not themselves.