PUNTA GORDA, Fla.–A Federal Court of Appeals ruled on May 23 that it is unconstitutional for Florida to prohibit social media companies from banning politicians, handing Gov. Ron DeSantis a blow to combat online censorship.
The 11th Circuit Court of Appeals in a 67-page opinion upheld an injunction blocking key parts of Florida’s social media law and said that meddling with the platforms’ content moderation policies ran afoul of the First Amendment.
“We conclude that social-media platforms’ content-moderation activities—permitting, removing, prioritizing, and deprioritizing users and posts—constitute ‘speech’ within the meaning of the First Amendment,” the court wrote.
NetChoice LLC and the Computer & Communications Industry Association—two social media trade associations—challenged the law that was signed last year….