Social Media Platforms as Publishers: Evaluating the First Amendment Basis for Content Moderation

By Jimmy Fraley — In recent years, many Republican politicians have become increasingly vocal about the content censorship imposed by social media companies. These Republicans are concerned that social media companies have taken actions to censor conservative speech and have engaged in a type of viewpoint policing. This concern has turned into action, with Jim Jordan, Chairman of the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary, subpoenaing the heads of several large companies, including Apple and Meta, to testify on what he calls “the federal government’s reported collusion with Big Tech to suppress free speech.” On the state level, several Republican-controlled legislatures have attempted to handle the issue. Notably, Texas and Florida have both passed laws restricting social media companies’ ability to censor content in an attempt to prevent viewpoint-based censorship.