Supreme Court Ruling Could Be Biggest Threat To Big Tech Censorship Yet
Friday, the US Supreme Court announced that it will rule on whether Florida and Texas state laws that prohibit social media platforms from censoring users based on their political opinions are in violation of the Constitution.
"The justices will review laws enacted by Republican-dominated legislatures and signed by Republican governors in Florida and Texas. While the details vary, both laws aim to prevent the social media companies from censoring users based on their viewpoints," reports the AP.
Specifically, the laws seek to regulate Facebook, TikTok, and X from further rulings on what opinions users can post on their platforms.
And we hope the laws prevail.
Betsy McCaughey is a former lieutenant governor of New York. She argued in an op-ed for the New York Post Wednesday that states should have a legal standing in limiting online censorship.
McCaughey notes how laws forbid phone companies like AT&T and Sprint from shutting off a customer's service because of their political views.
She discussed how rules are in place to prevent airlines from refusing to sell tickets to conservatives.
She concluded that hotels cannot legally discriminate against people over their beliefs, and therefore neither should Big Tech be able to.
"That same ban against political discrimination should apply to social-media platforms," writes McCaughey.
"Expect Thomas to lead a majority of the justices to conclude that Internet censorship is inconsistent with democracy and must be stopped. A high-court ruling against censorship will deal a powerful blow against Big Tech tyranny."
That it would.
Censorship and politically-motivated governance via social media are of particular interest of late, ahead of the 2024 presidential election.
Three years ago, Twitter and Facebook assisted Joe Biden in his bid for the White House by suppressing the accurately-reported exposé on Hunter Biden’s laptop.
Over 16% of Biden voters say they would have voted differently in 2020 had they been aware of the laptop report.
Moreover, OutKick cited a study last week from Dr. Robert Epstein, a research psychologist, that determined Google shifted "at least six million votes in favor of Joe Biden" using "quantified manipulations."
Per Dr. Epstein:
" a strong bias in favor of Democrats.
“We found a period of days where the vote reminder on Google’s homepage was being sent only to liberals. Not one of our conservative field agents received the vote reminder.”
“The bias was being shown to pretty much every demographic. This includes conservatives.”
In addition, the MRC Free Speech America uncovered how Google now manipulates search results of presidential candidates with a bias in favor of Joe Biden.
The Supreme Court ought to look into that as well. And Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which protects social media “platforms” from the liabilities online “publishers” face.
Social media has transformed how Americans communicate and consume news. Each election the influence of Big Teach proves more profound.
Never before have voters been more influenced by the whims of Big Tech.
And as McCaughey opines, Americans have never been less free to say and see what they want because of Big Tech.
Justices like Clarence Thomas hope to put an end to those statements.