Florida Enjoined from Enforcing Law Targeting Some Social Media Platforms

Earlier this year, Florida enacted Senate Bill 7072 – The Stop Social Media Censorship Act – which imposed requirements and prohibitions on some, but not all, social media platforms relating to the speech hosted on their websites. The Act was scheduled to take effect on July 1, 2021, but on June 30, 2021, Judge Robert L. Hinkle of the United States District Court for the Northern District of Florida entered a preliminary injunction in NetChoice LLC, et al. v. Ashley Brooke Moody, et al., which enjoined various Florida officials from taking any steps to enforce the Act because he found the view-point based legislation was preempted by federal law and violated the First Amendment.            

The Florida legislation at issue, among other things, prohibited social media platforms from:

  • Barring candidates for office from their sites;
  • Using an algorithm to put a candidate’s posts in the feed of a user who wished to receive it or to exclude the post from the feed of a user who does not wish to receive it;
  • Taking action to “censor, deplatform or shadow ban” a “journalistic enterprise” based on the content of its publication or broadcast; and
  • Changing their user rules, terms and agreements more often than every 30 days
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The Donald Trump Twitter Case: Vacated and Dismissed as Moot by the Supreme Court

The June 14, 2018 post “The President May Not Block Twitter Followers Because They Disagree With Him Politically” reported how the District Court in Knight First Amendment Inst. at Columbia University v. Trump, 302 F.Supp.3d 541 (S.D.N.Y. 2018) found that then-President Donald Trump’s decision to block certain social media users from accessing his Twitter account was unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination. Then, the July 11, 2019 post, “Affirmed: President Trump Cannot Block Critics on Twitter”, reported that a unanimous three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed the district court’s decision.

The case was thereafter appealed to the Supreme Court of the United States, which failed to address the appeal on its merits. Instead, on April 5, 2021, the Supreme Court, which retitled the case Biden v. Knight First Amendment Inst. at Columbia University (because Donald Trump was no longer President), issued a one paragraph decision (with a concurrence written by Justice Thomas), that simply vacated the lower court judgment and ordered the Second Circuit “to dismiss the case as moot.”

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For any questions relating to this article, please contact Robert B. Nussbaum, Esq. at Saiber LLC.

WeChat and TikTok Win Preliminary Injunctions Against Trump Administration’s Efforts to Ban the Apps

The June 10, 2020 Trending Law Blog post discussed President Donald Trump’s plan to strongly regulate or close down certain social media platforms and the Executive Order he issued on May 28, 2020 to accomplish that goal. Thereafter, on August 6, 2020, President Trump issued two additional Executive Orders – Executive Order 13942 (to address “the threat” posed by the social networking service TikTok) and Executive Order 13943 (to address “the threat” posed by the messaging, social media and mobile payment app WeChat). The legality of both of the Executive Orders were successfully challenged in two district courts with preliminary injunctions being granted by two judges to enjoin the implementation, in part, of the two Executive Orders.

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AFFIRMED: President Trump Cannot Block Critics on Twitter

Donald_Trump_Official_PortraitThe June 14, 2018 post “The President May Not Block Twitter Followers Because They Disagree With Him Politically” reported how, in the decision of the District Court in Knight First Amendment Inst. at Columbia University v. Trump, 302 F.Supp.3d 541 (S.D.N.Y. 2018), the court found that the President’s decision to block certain social media users from accessing his Twitter account was unconstitutional viewpoint discrimination. On July 9, 2019 a unanimous three-judge panel of the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit affirmed.

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Appeals Courts Consider Whether Elected Officials Can Block Critics on Social Media

Law App IconOn March 26, 2019, the United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit heard oral argument in Knight First Amendment Inst. at Columbia University v. Trump, No. 18-1691 (2d Cir.), a case which will decide whether President Donald Trump can block people from seeing what he posts on Twitter.  (See Trending Law Blog, June 14, 2018).

Although the Second Circuit has not yet issued its decision, in a similar case, the United States Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit ruled on January 7, 2019 that the Chairman of the Loudoun County Board of Supervisors – an elected official – violated the First Amendment when she temporarily blocked a constituent on Facebook.  See Davidson v. Randall, No. 17-2002 (4th Cir. Jan. 7, 2019).  In the unanimous decision of the Fourth Circuit, the court held that elected officials may not block critics on social media accounts used for official business.

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The President May Not Block Twitter Followers Because They Disagree With Him Politically

Donald_Trump_Official_Portrait“This case requires us to consider whether a public official may, consistent with the First Amendment, ‘block’ a person from his Twitter account in response to the political views that person has expressed, and whether the analysis differs because that public official is the President of the United States. The answer to both questions is no.”  Thus, begins the 75 page decision of the Honorable Naomi Reice Buchwald, U.S.D.J. in Knight First Amendment Inst. at Columbia University v. Trump, No. 17-5205 (S.D.N.Y. May 23, 2018).

The court reached its decision after noting that the National Archives and Records Administration regards the President’s tweets as official records that must be preserved by statute and then finding that the President used his Twitter account to announce, describe, and defend his policies; to promote his administration’s legislative agenda; to announce official decisions; to engage with foreign political leaders; to publicize state visits; to challenge media organizations; and to announce matters related to official government business before those matters were announced through other channels.

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