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24 J. High Tech. L. [1] (2023-2024)

handle is hein.journals/jhtl24 and id is 1 raw text is: THE AGE OF CONTENT REGULATION: DO SOCIAL MEDIA GIANTS HAVE FIRST AMENDMENT RIGHTS TOO? Molly Codeanne* I. Introduction The existence and prevalence of social media has created a slew of indisputably difficult constitutional and legal issues.1 When we consider First Amendment rights in connection with social media, we typically think of users' ability to speak freely on issues about which they feel passionate.2 We rarely contemplate the social media * J.D. Candidate, Suffolk University Law School, 2024 'See Robert Barns & Ann E. Marimow, A Landmark Supreme Court Fight Over Social Media Now Looks Likely, WASH. POST (Sept. 19, 2022), archived at https://penna.cc/7VDZ-AG22 (stating that Justice Alito wrote that [i]t is not at all obvious how our existing precedents, which predate the age of the internet, should apply to large social media companies.). While the Fifth Circuit's decision in NetChoice, LLC v. Paxton, held that social media companies create a transposition of the First Amendment, the social media platforms argued that somewhere in the person's enumerated right to free speech lies a corporation's unenumerated right to muzzle speech. Id. See also Scott Nover, Social media laws in Texas and Florida hang in limbo as Supreme Court delays decision, QUARTZ (Jan. 23, 2023), archived at https://perma.cc/L9GQ-8DE2 (acknowledging that cases regarding complex constitutional issues in today's highly politicized regulatory regime ...raise complex First Amendment issues, not just regarding compelled carry but also transparency obligations.). 2 See Kelsey Reichmann, Florida asks Supreme Court to review social media censorship law, COURTHOUSE NEWS SERV. (Sept. 21, 2022), archived at https://perma.cc/R6PE-UY29 (stating that Florida's petition challenging the ruling on the Florida law was aimed at social media companies for removing conservative ideas). Florida argues that social media companies have engaged in a censorial streak allowing them to manipulate the forum in which most people express their ideas. Id. See also Barns & Marimow, supra note 1 (stating that Oldham wrote in the Fifth Circuit's decision [t]hat Amendment, of course, protects every person's Copyright © 2023 Journal of High Technology Law and Molly Codeanne. All Rights Reserved. ISSN 1536-7983.

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