Cornell expert on SCOTUS decision to review state regulation of social media

The Supreme Court has agreed to hear challenges to laws in Texas and Florida that would limit the ability of platforms like Facebook, YouTube and X to moderate content.

James Grimmelmann, professor of digital and information law at Cornell University, is an expert in content moderation, search engine regulation and online governance.

Grimmelmann says: 

“The lower-court decisions in the two cases are inconsistent, so the Supreme Court was going to have to resolve the split – one way or the other. It kicked the can down the road for nine months by asking the federal government to weigh in. The Solicitor General’s brief said exactly what everyone already knew: the Supreme Court had to take the cases. Now it has, and what it does will shape the future of speech on the Internet.

“The Texas and Florida bills would make major social networks unusable, because content moderation is essential to protecting users from junk they don’t want to see. NetChoice has made powerful arguments about why these bills are unworkable; hopefully the Supreme Court will listen.”

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