The Supreme Court ruled 6-3 in favor of the Joe Biden administration on a case that involves social media and limiting the amount of contact government can have with the platforms. The Supreme Court effectively reversed a ruling from a lower court that restricted the government's interaction with social media platforms, particularly in terms of forcing, asking, or convincing the platforms to moderate content.
Many people believe government could abuse this power to force social media platforms to remove content they don't like, or want people to know. And in this day and age where Joe Biden's administration has been a huge failure filled with misinformation and lies - just see how many times Joe and Kamala have been fact checked on X by Community Notes, then you'd be worried about this too. It's reported that Chief Justice John Roberts, Justices Sonia Sotomayor, Elena Kagan, Brett Kavanaugh and Ketanji Brown Jackson were part of the 6-3 ruling. NPR reported on the details.
The court did not decide the question of what precisely constitutes permissible contacts between executive branch officials and social media companies. Rather, by a vote of 6 to 3, the court ruled that those challenging the government’s interaction with social media companies lacked legal standing to sue.
Supporters of the ruling argued that — at least in the interim — the decision preserves the government’s ability to engage with private companies on critical matters of public interest. For instance, they said that a contrary decision risked fueling the spread of voting misinformation, which undermines the ability of citizens to make informed decisions about elections, and proliferates false information about where and when to vote.
Critics, however, warned that the ruling could lead to unchecked government pressure on social media companies and related private entities.
