Supreme Court to consider Texas and Florida laws regulating social media platforms

Washington — The Supreme Court on Friday said it would take up a pair of challenges to controversial laws from Texas and Florida that impose new regulations on content moderation policies of social media companies, setting up a showdown over how far states can go to combat alleged censorship of users by online platforms.

The cases will join several others before the justices this term that stand at the intersection of the First Amendment and online speech. The high court is tasked with weighing two questions: whether the laws' content-moderation restrictions comply with the First Amendment and whether their individualized-explanation requirements comport with the constitution.

Officials have said the laws from Texas and Florida aim to stop the nation's largest social media companies — Facebook, X, TikTok and YouTube, among others — from censoring users based on viewpoint and were prompted by Republicans' claims that platforms were silencing conservative users.