Supreme Court hears arguments on social media moderation

March 18 (UPI) -- The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday began hearing arguments on social media moderation on Monday and whether the federal government should have any power in swaying the platforms in taking down what it believes is false or misleading content.

The case reached the Supreme Court from the conservative Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, which sided with two Republican attorneys general in preventing the federal government from interacting with social media outlets to get them to block or downplay some information.

The attorneys general said the government was violating the First Amendment in pushing social media platforms to block or downplay content. The Biden administration said, though, it was practicing its First Amendment right to engage social media platforms about harmful and false content in the greater public interest.

While social media companies like Facebook and X are not part of the case, they have long claimed the rules they set up to post and not post on their sites are protected by the First Amendment, like newspapers and other traditional news media outlets.

Opponents, though, have said social media outlets perform more like utilities in hosting content and don't have the same First Amendment protections as traditional news outlets.

At the heart of the conflict was information about COVID-19 and its vaccines and treatments during the pandemic and then the accuracy of 2020 election information. The federal government said it has the right to flag false and misleading information while opponents charged that it simply targeted individuals and groups they did not like.