Republican Attorneys General back Texas and Florida social media regulations at US Supreme Court

Social media companies should be treated as utilities such as telephone or telegraph companies, a group of states led by Republican attorneys general told the US Supreme Court. In a friend-of-the-court brief, 19 states and the state legislature of Arizona wrote that the Supreme Court should uphold laws passed by Texas and Florida that restrict companies including Meta, YouTube, X and others from moderating the content that their users post online. Contested state laws forcing social media companies to carry all online speech are constitutional because tech platforms enjoy “hyperconcentration” of economic power, the group argued. The brief reflects broad conservative support for laws that have been presented as “anti-censorship” but that the tech industry has argued violate the First Amendment rights of social media companies to manage their own, private spaces. The high-stakes case could determine the future of social media moderation and online political speech and is expected to go to oral argument in February.