New Developments in the World of Section 230
Trump vs. Twitter: The Feud Over Section 230 and Online Censorship
Are social media companies more like newspapers or phone companies? This oft-debated question in social media legal circles, while seemingly trivial on the surface, represents a momentous debate over whether—and how...more
A recent U.S. Supreme Court decision may have substantial effects on social media censorship. Based on their content-moderation policies, social media platforms have taken actions to suppress certain categories of speech,...more
Social media companies have long moderated the type of content that appears on a person’s home page by, for instance, deleting explicit posts or “downgrading” posts containing misinformation. Based on the belief that these...more
The Supreme Court of the United States issued two decisions today: Murthy v. Missouri, No. 23-411: This case involves challenges to federal government communications with social media companies related to content...more
In its recent opinions in Linke v. Freed and O’Connor-Ratcliff v. Garnier, the U.S. Supreme Court considered if and when public officials violate the First Amendment rights of members of the public by blocking them from the...more
On Friday, March 15, a unanimous Supreme Court decided two companion cases (Lindke v. Freed and O’Connor-Ratcliff v. Garnier) that resolved a split in the Circuits concerning whether public officials can be held liable under...more
The U.S. Supreme Court has established guidelines for determining when a public official’s use of a private social media platform such as Facebook, X or Nextdoor constitutes public speech that cannot be censored. State and...more
On February 26, 2024, the United States Supreme Court is set to hear oral argument in two cases currently before the Court, Moody v. NetChoice and NetChoice v. Paxton. At their core, these cases raise the question as to...more
In this edition of #NoFilter, we will examine a recent September 16, 2022, decision from the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals upholding a Texas state law impacting the power of social media platforms to moderate content on...more
On December 1, 2021, Judge Pitman of the Western District of Texas granted a preliminary injunction to prevent the Texas Attorney General from enforcing HB 20. NetChoice v. Paxton. HB 20 prohibits large social media platforms...more
The August 13, 2021 Trending Law Blog post discussed how the United States District court for the Northern District of Florida enjoined Florida from enforcing a law that targeted some, but not all, social media platforms...more
Over the past several years, Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, the federal law that provides social media platforms with immunity from liability for user content and was once hailed as “the law that gave us the...more
Earlier this year, Florida enacted Senate Bill 7072 - The Stop Social Media Censorship Act - which imposed requirements and prohibitions on some, but not all, social media platforms relating to the speech hosted on their...more
In the current environment of reckoning for the societal power of Big Tech, one threat seems ever-present on the tongues of those who would cut these companies down to size. Enacting this threat is likely to have the opposite...more
As part of Spilman's Decoded: Technology Law Insights e-newsletter, Spilman members Joseph Schaeffer and Nick Mooney discuss Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act and how it plays into President Trump's recent...more
The Issue: Tech platforms face a hostile environment in Washington, with bipartisan consensus building behind proposals for additional regulation. The Situation: Regulating how tech companies transmit online content is the...more