ANALYSIS: Under Section 230, Providers Define Offensive Material

The US Supreme Court heard arguments Feb. 25 on Florida and Texas laws that prohibit social media platforms from engaging in content moderation and editorial choices based mainly on a user’s viewpoint.

Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act (CDA) was brought up on multiple occasions during oral argument, most notably by Justice Clarence Thomas, who has a documented disagreement with the broad immunity that lower courts have accorded parties under the statute. This time, however, Thomas questioned the broad editorial discretion lower courts have given social media platforms in removing objectionable content.

This discretion is a matter of subjective ...