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Florida Attorney General Ashley Moody attended the U.S. Supreme Court Monday defending Florida’s law limiting social media censorship.
The high court heard oral arguments challenging SB 7072, which prohibits social media companies from censoring, shadow-banning and post prioritization in a way that is inconsistent and unfair, deplatforming U.S. political candidates or journalistic enterprises, and requires social media platforms to meet certain requirements when restricting the speech of users.
Proponents of the Florida law argued that that social media companies should be considered common carriers, like a telephone company, that cannot discriminate against any content they carry.
According to Moody, “social media is the new town square, but the Big Tech CEOs who control these platforms argue they should have unfettered power to silence voices they don’t agree with, deplatform people who challenge corporate media narratives, and shadow ban candidates who don’t share their Silicon Valley values. We are fighting in the U.S. Supreme Court for Floridians to debate ideas, engage in political discourse and question government policies on social media platforms. This fight is vital to our democratic process and necessary to the prosperity of a free society, and government of the people, by the people, for the people.”
Moody said initially social media companies identified as a neutral forum of speech, but now the platforms argue the right to unrestrained editorial authority to censor certain speech and individuals.
Read the full bill here.