The Supreme Court is set to decide whether government demands to remove social media posts are censorship.
By Naomi Nix, Cat Zakrzewski and Ann E. Marimow, The Washington PostIn this Feb. 18, 2021, file photo, demonstrators stand in front of U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz's home demanding his resignation in Houston.
A spokesman for Cruz told The Post on Sunday that “safety threats against Sen. Cruz and his family are well documented, and his office has asked them to avoid doxing his home address - as the Post does in the picture accompanying this article.” The case was initiated by Republican attorneys general in Louisiana and Missouri, who sued the Biden administration, alleging its communications with platforms urging the removal of posts containing misinformation about
a post circulating his wife’s phone number. Twitter ultimately declined after staffers reviewed the tweets and found that Debbie Boehner, a real estate agent, advertised the number prominently on her own website, one of the people said. Neither Boehner nor Cruz responded to requests for comment. “The government has no authority to threaten platforms into censoring protected speech, but it must have the ability to participate in public discourse so that it can effectively govern and inform the public of its view,” he said.During the Obama administration, Facebook, Google and other tech juggernauts were the darlings of
As Washington policymakers increasingly scrutinized social media, they more frequently sought to influence the companies’ decisions. Before Elon Musk’s takeover, Twitter largely prohibited lobbyists or advertising reps - who might have connections to politicians - from deciding whether a tweet should be removed or left up. Instead, those employees would send those requests to the trust and safety team responsible for content moderation, the people said.
That same month, the White House said it was reviewing policies to hold tech companies responsible for misinformation, including amending tech companies’ prized legal shield, Section 230an idea Biden had floated as early as 2020. Humphrey and Flaherty did not respond to requests for comment.
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