The Supreme Court’s decision on two cases challenging social media content moderation policies could expand protections for tech platforms under the First Amendment umbrella even if Congress were to dilute other protections, according to legal experts closely watching the issue. Fordham Law Professor Zephyr Teachout was quoted in a Roll Call article, calling Supreme Court Justice Elena Kagan’s views—which likened actions of social media companies to those made in newsrooms—“disappointing.”
Kagan’s views are “disappointing, because it analogizes social media platforms to the editorial work of newspapers,” said Fordham Law professor Zephyr Teachout, a senior adviser at the American Economic Liberties Project.
“As we argued in our amicus brief, and as noted in today’s concurring opinions, social media platforms are more like town squares,” Teachout said in a statement. “The First Amendment is not a shield for censorship and discrimination in the town square, and it shouldn’t protect against discrimination and targeting by opaque algorithms.”
Read “Ruling boosts social media free speech protections, some say” on Roll Call.