Information reaching Kossyderrickent has it that Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson is concerned that the First Amendment is “hamstringing the Government” when it comes to censoring speech on social media in leaked audio with Benjamin Aguiñaga.
“You seem to be suggesting that that duty cannot manifest itself in the government encouraging or even pressuring platforms to take down harmful information,” Jackson said. “So, can you help me? Because I’m really worried about that because you’ve got the First Amendment operating in an environment of threatening circumstances, from the government’s perspective, and you’re saying that the government can’t interact with the source of those problems.”
Aguiñaga said his view was that the government should intervene in certain situations, but it has to do so by following the First Amendment.
Several of the Supreme Court’s conservative justices joined their liberal colleagues Monday in pushing back on states that want to restrict how the federal government can interact with social media platforms about potential misinformation.
The justices expressed concern that drawing the line too tight would prevent the government from talking to Facebook, X and other platforms about the potential harm caused by posts related to war, terrorist activity or a hypothetical viral challenge among teenagers to jump out of windows.
“Our position is not that the government can’t interact with the platforms there. They can and they should in certain circumstances like that, that present such dangerous issues for society and especially young people,” Aguiñaga said in response. “But the way they do that has to be in compliance with the First Amendment. And I think that means they can give them all the true information that the platform needs and ask to amplify that.”
Louisiana Solicitor General Benjamin Aguinaga told the court that in his “purist” view, even mild encouragement by the government to Facebook on what they should or shouldn’t allow goes too far.
Louisiana, Missouri and others have accused the Biden administration of illegally targeting conservative opinion on social media. While lower courts have ruled in favor of the states, the Supreme Court blocked those decisions until it delivers its own ruling.