The Supreme Court on Wednesday tossed out a lawsuit that sought to restrict the federal government’s ability to communicate with social media companies about content moderation.
The 6-3 decision in Murthy v. Missouri et al. overturned a lower-court ruling that would have restricted the federal government’s communication with internet giants like Google, Meta and Twitter over what it saw as “misinformation” on issues such as COVID-19 vaccines and election interference.
The majority opinion, written by Justice Amy Coney Barrett, found that the two Republican-led states and social media users who filed the lawsuit against dozens of executive branch officials and agencies did not have the legal right to do so, because they could not prove that government pressure had suppressed their free-speech rights.
