WASHINGTON, June 26 — The US Supreme Court today rejected a Republican-led bid to curb government contact with social media companies to moderate their content, a ruling that could bolster official efforts to fight misinformation in a key election year.
The justices, voting 6-3, held that the challengers—including two states and social media users—did not have a legal standing to sue.
“The plaintiffs, without any concrete link between their injuries and the defendants’ conduct, ask us to conduct a review of the years-long communications between dozens of federal officials, across different agencies, with different social-media platforms, about different topics,” Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote for the majority.
“This court’s standing doctrine prevents us from (exercising such) general legal oversight of the other branches of government.”
The case stems from a lawsuit brought by the Republican attorneys general of Louisiana and Missouri, who alleged that government officials went too far in their bid to get platforms to combat vaccine and election misinformation, violating First Amendment free speech rights of social media users.
Last year, a lower court restricted top officials and agencies of Democratic President Joe Biden’s administration from meeting and communicating with social media companies to moderate their content.
Wednesday’s decision was a setback for conservative advocates who allege that the government has pressured or colluded with platforms such as Facebook and X, formerly Twitter, to censor right-leaning content under the guise of fighting misinformation. — AFP
