The Breitbart News reports that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas outlined detailed legal arguments today Monday that social media companies may need to be subject to strict rules proposing to prohibit social media companies from denying service to users for any reason, all of which would effectively eliminate social media platforms from banning or censoring users and infringing on people’s legitimate, freedom of speech protected by the First Amendment.
In his analysis of the case at issue, Thomas noted that the president is a public official, and as such his tweets should be considered a constitutionally protected public forum where the president cannot black out other users. Meanwhile Justice Thomas also said that the Supreme Court will soon have to address the issue of censorship of speech by large technology companies.
Thomas wrote: “The Second Circuit was concerned that then-President Trump had used Twitter’s blackout feature to cut off free speech, but if the goal is to ensure that speech is not stifled, then the more salient concern is necessarily the dominant digital platform itself. “
Thomas argues that the disparity between the control Twitter has over Trump and the control Mr. Trump has in pulling the plug on Twitter users is clear. Mr. Trump pulled the plug on just a few people, preventing just a few from interacting with the president, while Twitter is removing Trump from the entire platform and banning all Twitter users from interacting with President Trump’s messages.
Justice Thomas went on to point out many of the problems with social media censorship and suggested that treating technology platforms as common carriers or places of public accommodation might give lawmakers a strong case for similar regulation of digital platforms so that they can be severely limited in terms of denial of service.
According to law professor Adam Candeub, “Justice Thomas’s statement is an encouraging sign that the federal judiciary, and the legislature, will take a hard look at the legal status of social media. Never in our history has the United States given control of a dominant communications network to a private company without imposing an obligation to provide a service to all citizens.”
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