Florida fights in court to revive law restricting social media bans - Reuters
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Facebook, TikTok, Twitter, YouTube and Instagram apps are seen on a smartphone in this illustration taken, July 13, 2021. REUTERS/Dado Ruvic/Illustration
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(Reuters) - Florida on Thursday urged a federal appeals court to revive a controversial state law that prevents large social media companies from banning posts by or about political candidates, which a lower court had struck down as unconstitutional.
Brian Barnes, a lawyer with Cooper & Kirk who represents the state, said the 1st Amendment of the U.S. Constitution does not shield social media companies, like Twitter Inc, Facebook and Alphabet Inc's Google, from the law because social media companies are merely relaying speech by others.
"The central question in this appeal is whether social media platforms are expressing some kind of message when they host billions of posts made by their users on every conceivable topic," he said. In fact, he said, social media companies are more like cable providers, which can be mandated to carry content, such as local channels.
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Paul Clement of Kirkland & Ellis, arguing for the internet lobbying groups that challenged the law, NetChoice and Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), said social media companies' decisions to exclude certain content was a kind of editorial judgment. CCIA includes Twitter, Facebook and Google.
"It may be that compared to a newspaper's editorial page, my clients exclude far less content, but it's what they've excluded that the whole controversy's about," he said. Clement said social media companies' decisions about what to publish should be protected by the 1st Amendment like a newspaper's.
The arguments came amid heightened scrutiny of how social media companies moderate content as billionaire Elon Musk, Tesla Inc's CEO, pledged to buy Twitter after complaining that the platform censored political speech.
Barnes faced skeptical questions from the panel.
"What if Twitter, for instance, just came out of the closet and said, we're going to be the liberal social media platform?" asked Circuit Judge Kevin Newsom.
Barnes said Twitter would be free to apply a pro-liberal moderation policy consistently under the law.
The law, passed last March, would make Florida the first state to regulate how social media companies moderate online speech. Conservatives including Republican Florida Governor Ron DeSantis have accused social media companies of political bias, pointing to the removal of former Republican President Donald Trump from Twitter and Facebook in January 2021 as he spread false claims of election fraud.
U.S. District Judge Robert Hinkle in Tallahassee blocked enforcement of the law last July, shortly before it was to take effect.
The case is NetChoice LLC v. Attorney General of the State of Florida, 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, No. 21-12355.
For plaintiffs: Paul Clement of Kirkland & Ellis
For the state: Brian Barnes of Cooper & Kirk
Read more:
Federal judge rules Florida social media law likely violates free speech
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