Legal experts say they're the most important First Amendment cases in a generation. The question is whether states like Florida and Texas can force big social media platforms to carry content the platforms find hateful or objectionable.
"Freedom of speech is under attack in Texas," declared Texas Republican Gov. Greg Abbott at the bill signing."There is a dangerous movement by some social media companies to silence conservative ideas and values. This is wrong and we will not allow it in Texas." John Whitehead runs the Rutherford Institute, a conservative-leaning nonprofit group. Whitehead, who filed a friend-of-the-court brief in the cases, said the big social media sites have become the center of people's lives and they should not be engaging in any censorship.
Carl Szabo is general counsel of Netchoice, another big trade group for social media platforms that's involved in these lawsuits.At stake, he said, is who controls what people hear, say and read online. Today, the social media sites said, Florida is trying to make the big social media platforms print every single letter to the editor. Users don't want that and neither do advertisers, they said.The two trade associations — Netchoice and CCIA — are backed by groups across the political spectrum, from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Americans For Prosperity, which is linked to Charles Koch, to the American Civil Liberties Union.
Home-grown extremists like the Proud Boys and foreign groups like the Islamic State have deployed social media to attract converts and broadcast violence. The Christchurch mosque shooter in New Zealand live-streamed his activities, to try to inspire others, she added.
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