United States of America: Issued US Supreme Court ruling regarding blocking of Senate Bill 7072 provisions prohibiting social media platforms from blocking politicians

On 1 July 2024, the US Supreme Court issued a ruling on Senate Bill 7072, which prohibits social media platforms from blocking politicians. The Supreme Court determined that the lower courts had not adequately assessed the First Amendment implications and directed them to conduct further analysis. Previously, the Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit had upheld the blocking of certain provisions in Senate Bill 7072, deeming them unconstitutional. This decision followed a ruling by the Northern District of Florida on 30 June 2021, which initially blocked the Bill. The Court of Appeals concluded that social media platforms' moderation practices are an exercise of editorial judgment protected by the First Amendment. Consequently, the prohibition on deplatforming practices in Senate Bill 7072 was ruled unconstitutional, and its blocking was confirmed. The Court of Appeals also found the Bill's requirement for platforms to provide notice and detailed justification for every content moderation action to be unconstitutional, as it is "unduly burdensome" and likely to discourage platforms' protected speech. Therefore, the preliminary injunction issued by the Northern District of Florida was upheld. However, the judges ruled that the right of de-platformed users to access and retrieve all their information and content within 60 days of deplatforming is constitutional, as are certain transparency requirements for platforms. Senate Bill 7072 aims to prohibit social media platforms from deplatforming political candidates, with fines for violations set at USD 250'000 per day for statewide candidates and USD 25'000 per day for non-statewide candidates. The Bill also seeks to prevent restrictions on journalistic enterprises with over 100'000 active users per month or 50'000 paid subscribers and includes provisions against shadow-banning, defined as actions limiting a user's or their content's visibility to others on the platform.