Legal Battle Over Florida’s Big Tech Censorship Law May Impact Future of Free Speech on Social Media

News Analysis

Recent controversies stoked by alleged efforts of leading tech platforms to ban or “de-platform” content on political grounds—which some claim was behind Twitter’s temporary blocking last week of all links to articles running in The Epoch Times—have prompted fresh debate over the legal rights of users of these platforms and what the First Amendment does, and does not, guarantee.

In the view of some legal experts, while the spirit of the First Amendment unmistakably favors freedom of expression, its explicit language leaves those who have been banned or blocked with little legal recourse, calling for new approaches, including potentially an antitrust case against the tech companies whose dominance is so entrenched that they shape public discourse in a putatively free society.

SB 7072’s Uncertain Fate

Some people have eagerly awaited the outcome of an ongoing case, NetChoice v. Moody, in which tech and social media companies represented by the trade association NetChoice have challenged a Florida law, SB 7072, which sought to bar the platforms from censoring content from any candidates running for statewide or national office. While the litigation pertains to the rights specifically of Florida users of social media platforms, it has gained national attention and support in other states, and is closely watched by tech companies around the country.

Introduced partly in response to the decision of Facebook and Twitter in January 2021 to kick former President Donald Trump off their platforms, SB 7072 purports to move the decision to “de-platform” a candidate out of the hands of the big tech companies and place it in the hands of the end users, Florida citizens, who are free to delete or block any content they wish.

The governor’s office promoted the statute not just as one benefiting candidates, but as a populist measure, declaring in a statement, “All