Attorney General Tong, on SCOTUS Decision Preserving the Government’s Ability to Address Spread of Disinformation on Social Media Platforms

Another dangerous SCOTUS Decision could mean your social media excludes information that could save your life

“This decision rightly preserves the government’s ability to work with social media companies to address the spread of disinformation and dangerous content online.

This is all-hands-on-deck kind of work. We need governments and platforms working closely together to root out violent content, cyberbullying, child predators, and deeply damaging disinformation regarding public health, our democracy, and more,” said Attorney General Tong.

Missouri, Louisiana, and several individuals had claimed federal officials jawboned social media companies into moderating disinformation about COVID-19 and other topics of vital public health and civic interest. The plaintiffs said that this communication crossed the line into coercion, violating their First Amendment rights.

Last summer, a federal district court agreed with the plaintiffs, and issued a preliminary injunction effectively barring any communications between many federal government officials and social media companies about the platforms’ content-moderation decisions. The Fifth Circuit largely affirmed. The U.S. Supreme Court disagreed, ruling that the plaintiffs had not themselves been harmed and lacked standing to sue.

Read the brief statement.