NetChoice, the group suing the state on behalf of internet giants, doesn’t see it that way. The group holds that the new law violates companies’ First Amendment rights by limiting their ability to regulate content on their own platforms.
“We have a whole litany of cases that make crystal clear governments cannot force private businesses to say things they don’t want to say,” Carl Szabo, vice president of NetChoice, said Monday.
Federal law limits the authority of individual states to regulate social media companies, so the state may have to get creative with its legal arguments. But Szabo said none of those strategies will sidestep the constitutional issue at the heart of the case.
“Not only is this not a monopoly, even if it were the state would still lose,” Szabo said.