Social Media

A panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court on Monday gave little indication how it would rule as its three judges heard arguments on overturning the agency's Oct. 25 declaratory ruling authorizing E-rate funding for Wi-Fi on school buses (see 2312200040). Maurine and Matthew Molak of Texas brought the case, arguing that the ruling went beyond the commission’s authority to act under the Communications Act.

The tech industry renewed its fight against a Florida social media law in district court Friday following a remand from the U.S. Supreme Court (see 2407010053). The law’s challenged provisions are “facially unconstitutional,” NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association said in an amended complaint at the U.S. District Court for Northern Florida (case 4:21-cv-00220). The 2021 Florida law “seeks to punish select private parties for exercising editorial discretion in ways the state disfavors,” said the tech groups’ amended complaint. While Florida had defended the law “on the theory that websites like Facebook and YouTube do not engage in First Amendment activity when they make decisions about what content to disseminate and how to arrange and organize it,” the Supreme Court “laid that argument to rest,” they said. While the state may criticize websites’ moderation decisions, “the First Amendment prohibits the state from overriding those editorial judgments and substituting its own,” NetChoice and CCIA said. “Florida has identified no other interest that could justify [the social media law], and the provisions of the law at issue here are not remotely tailored to any interest it might come up with.”

A district court shouldn’t dismiss a free speech lawsuit attorneys general in Louisiana and Missouri filed against the Biden administration given new evidence, the New Civil Liberties Alliance said in a brief filed Tuesday. Republican attorneys general in Louisiana and Missouri sued the Biden administration in 2022, claiming senior officials “colluded” with social media giants Meta, Twitter and YouTube, censoring information about COVID-19 and other topics. The U.S. Supreme Court in June ruled the 5th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court was "wrong" when it affirmed a district court’s “sweeping” preliminary injunction that barred dozens of White House officials and four federal agencies from coercing social media platforms (see 2406260034). The 5th Circuit's judgment was reversed and remanded to the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana. NCLA claims some of its clients, including several medical professionals, still face censorship on major social media platforms, and the court should allow additional discovery. As such, NCLA asked the district court to allow an amended complaint and the possibility of adding plaintiffs.

NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) asked a federal court for a preliminary injunction of a Florida law that restricts kids’ access to social media and pornography websites. The groups filed the motion Tuesday at the U.S. District Court for Northern Florida, following up on a complaint they submitted Monday (see 2410280021). Granting the motion would stop the Florida law from taking effect Jan. 1. The court should rule on a preliminary injunction before that date because the law “will have a substantial impact upon the First Amendment rights of members of CCIA and NetChoice, and upon the rights of users of those members’ services,” wrote the plaintiffs, who also requested oral argument before a decision is made. The law requires parental consent before children ages 14 and 15 can use social media, while prohibiting parents from overriding a ban on children 13 and younger.

Florida “cannot begin to show that its draconian access restrictions are necessary to advance any legitimate interest it may assert” to protect children, NetChoice and the Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) wrote in a complaint Monday at the U.S. District Court for Northern Florida. The tech industry groups filed a First Amendment challenge against a Florida law set to take effect Jan. 1.

NetChoice’s challenge of Utah’s Minor Protection in Social Media Act will be stayed at the U.S. District Court for Utah while the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals considers an appeal, the district court’s Magistrate Judge Cecilia Romero ordered Friday in case 2:23-cv-000911. The district court last month granted NetChoice’s request for preliminary injunction against the state’s social media age-verification law. Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes (R) and Katherine Hass, the state's Department of Commerce Consumer Protection Division director, appealed earlier this month (see 2410110031).

A news distortion complaint filed at the FCC against CBS isn’t “facially ridiculous,” said Commissioner Nathan Simington in a Fox News segment Thursday, though he also vowed not to “prejudge” the matter. The complaint argues that editing of an interview with Democratic presidential nominee Vice President Kamala Harris changed her answer to a question on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, making it sound more favorable. Although the complaint was brought against CBS’ owned and operated station WCBS New York, the content it focuses on was from network programs Face the Nation and 60 Minutes. For the FCC to find that news distortion occurred, the conduct would have had to occur at the level of the licensee rather than the network, Simington said. Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump on Thursday had reposted on Truth Social Simington's early posting about the complaint in which the commissioner wrote, “Interesting. Big if true. Will look into it.” Trump appointed Simington to the FCC in 2020, after the then-president withdrew his renomination of former Commissioner Mike O’Rielly in the wake of an O'Rielly speech critical of social media content regulation that the executive branch proposed.

Mississippi’s social media age-verification law doesn’t violate the First Amendment because it regulates online conduct, not speech, Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch (R) argued Thursday before the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (docket 24-60341) (see 2409260053). NetChoice won a preliminary injunction against the law from the U.S. District Court for Southern Mississippi in July (see [Ref:2407160038). Fitch is appealing to lift the injunction. Mississippi argued Thursday that the district court failed to fully review all applications of HB-1126 through a “demanding facial analysis.” The new law requires “commercially reasonable” efforts on age verification, parental consent and harm-mitigation strategies, said Fitch in her reply brief: “Those requirements pose no facial First Amendment problem.” She argued the law applies to interactive functions on platforms and harmful conduct. “That focus does not regulate speech.”

Broadcasters, MVPDs and network programmers want the FCC to shelve plans that require disclosures about the use of AI in political ads because they’re unworkably burdensome, exceed agency authority and won’t affect digital platforms, said reply filings in docket 24-211.

Utah is appealing a preliminary injunction against the state’s social media age-verification law, Attorney General Sean Reyes (R) said in a Thursday filing with the U.S. District Court of Utah (docket 2:23-cv-00911). NetChoice won an injunction against SB-194 in September on First Amendment grounds (see 2409110025). Reyes and Katherine Hass, the state's Department of Commerce Consumer Protection Division director, are appealing to the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.