‘The right to cut off speech lies most powerfully in the hands of private digital platforms’
Comments from Supreme Court justice Clarence Thomas on Monday will embolden opponents of major tech companies. In a case over whether President Joe Biden can block Twitter users from his personal account, Thomas wrote that Section 230, a federal law that protects online platforms from liability for content moderation, may violate the First Amendment.
Thomas’s concurring opinion in Biden v. Knight First Amendment Institute suggested that major social media companies could be treated as both “common carriers” and as “places of public accommodation,” two designations that would restrict platforms’ ability to bar certain speech. “Even if digital platforms are not close enough to common carriers,” Thomas said, “legislatures might still be able to treat digital platforms like places of public accommodation.”
The case addresses whether a government official—in this case, Biden—can block third-party accounts from his personal account if it is at times also used to announce official actions and policies. It mirrors a case brought by the same institute against the Trump administration, in which the court ruled Trump had to unblock third-party accounts.
Do ANY SCOTUS judges have any backbone these days ??????