Expect the U.S. Supreme Court to support the White House and reject Missouri’s First Amendment challenge claiming administration officials colluded with Big Tech to censor COVID-19 content, legal experts said in interviews last week. Others in the case were less certain, saying the high court provided mixed signals during March 18 oral argument in Murthy v. Missouri (docket 23-411) (see 2403180051).
Karl Herchenroeder
Karl Herchenroeder, Associate Editor, is a technology policy journalist for publications including Communications Daily. Born in Rockville, Maryland, he joined the Warren Communications News staff in 2018. He began his journalism career in 2012 at the Aspen Times in Aspen, Colorado, where he covered city government. After that, he covered the nuclear industry for ExchangeMonitor in Washington. You can follow Herchenroeder on Twitter: @karlherk
The federal government can encourage and even coerce social media platforms into moderating content without violating the First Amendment when there’s compelling public interest, conservative and liberal Supreme Court justices agreed Monday.
If the U.S. Supreme Court blocks social media laws in Florida and Texas, it could have a chilling effect on states trying to regulate online content, a panel of experts said Tuesday. Speaking at a Federalist Society webinar event, panelists said a ruling bolstering the tech industry’s First Amendment rights could jeopardize the constitutionality of laws aimed at regulating kids’ online safety. The Supreme Court held oral argument Monday in NetChoice v. Paxton (22-555) and Moody v. NetChoice (22-277) (see 2402260051).
It’s possible social media platforms could be considered common carriers when delivering emails or direct messages, the U.S. Supreme Court's conservative justices said Monday.
Expect a U.S. Supreme Court majority to side with the tech industry in its content moderation fight against social media laws in Florida and Texas, experts told us in interviews last week.
The Biden administration never tried to influence social media content moderation, but the FBI and Department of Homeland Security have stopped meeting with tech companies due to the ongoing litigation, FBI Director Christopher Wray and Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas told a Senate panel Tuesday.
Amazon engages in anticompetitive practices to block rivals from competing fairly, and places unfair constraints on sellers to the detriment of consumers, the FTC and 17 state attorneys general alleged Tuesday in a lawsuit against the platform.
The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) doesn’t preempt children from suing Google, YouTube and content creators for violating child privacy laws at the state level, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled Thursday in 21-16281.
Twitter threatened to sue Meta for allegedly misappropriating Twitter’s trade secrets when building its new text-based social media app, Threads. Meta launched the new app Wednesday and had accumulated more than 70 million users by Friday.
A 2018 anti-sex trafficking law that carved out liability protections for the tech industry doesn’t violate the First Amendment, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled Friday in docket 1:18-cv-01552.