WASHINGTON—Today, the State of Florida filed a petition for certiorari with the U.S. Supreme Court to determine whether its social media law is constitutional. This follows after the state’s law, SB 7072, was unanimously found unconstitutional by the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals in NetChoice and CCIA v. Moody. The request comes shortly after a divided Fifth Circuit upheld a similar Texas social media law.
Florida’s laws would deny websites the right to remove content that the website doesn’t want. This law represents government-compelled speech in violation of the First Amendment. If allowed to go into effect, the Florida law would require websites to show users lawful but awful content the websites do want to have.
“We agree with Florida that the U.S. Supreme Court should hear this case, and we’re confident that the First Amendment rights of websites will be upheld,” said Carl Szabo, NetChoice Vice President and General Counsel. “We look forward to seeing Florida in Court and having the lower court’s decision upheld. We have the Constitution and over a century of precedent on our side.”
You can find our resources on NetChoice & CCIA v. Moody here and the petition from the Eleventh Circuit here.
Please email Krista Chavez at press@netchoice.org with media inquiries.