Ashcroft v. American Civil Liberties Union (2004) struck down a law
designed to protect children from Internet pornography on grounds it
violated the First Amendment.
Internet and Social Media Cases
In Counterman v. Colorado, 600 U. S. ____ (2023), the U.S. Supreme Court vacated the conviction of a man found guilty of stalking a female musician, ruling that the First Amendment’s protection of free speech requires that prosecutors show that he was aware of the threatening nature of his communications. The ruling provided additional guidance on
In Free Speech Coalition, Inc. v. Paxton (2025), the Supreme Court upheld a Texas law that required pornography websites to verify the age of their users to ensure that only individuals 18 or older were accessing their material. The case was significant because at least 21 other states have adopted similar laws. The case marks a turn from
The U.S. Supreme Court in Gonzalez v. Google (2023) declined to rule on whether targeted recommendations by a social media company’s algorithms would fall outside the liability of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act. Instead, the Court said that its ruling in Twitter v. Taamneh on the same day “is sufficient to acknowledge
In Gonzalez v. Google and Taamneh v. Twitter, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in 2021 addressed the liability of social media platforms for allowing the terrorist group ISIS to post videos, communicate its messages and radicalize new recruits. Families of people killed in ISIS attacks sought damages under a 2016 provision in the Anti-Terrorism Act that allowed secondary
James Freed, the city manager of Port Huron, was sued by citizen who claimed Freed violated the First Amendment when Freed blocked the citizen’s posts on Freed’s Facebook page. The Supreme Court vacated and remanded lower rulings in favor of Freed to determine whether Freed had authority to make posts on behalf of the city, which would mean he engaged in state action in blocking the citizen.
Missouri v. Biden involved a claim by the states of Missouri and Louisiana and several social media users that federal government officials compelled social media companies to remove certain content and to refuse to post other content because the government did not like the viewpoints or messages of that speech. The federal government officials contended that
In Moody v. NetChoice, the U.S. Supreme Court identified what it called “the relevant constitutional principles” involving governmental regulation of social media platforms. The case was a consolidation of two cases involving constitutional challenges to 2021 laws in Florida and Texas. These state laws regulated the content moderation choices of social media platforms, such as
The Supreme Court in Murthy v. Missouri dismissed claims that the federal government likely violated the First Amendment by pressuring social media companies to censor content. The Court concluded the lower courts had erred in extending standing to the parties who had not established an adequate case or injury.
The Supreme Court in TikTok v. Garland (2025) upheld a law banning the social media’s operation in the United States unless it was sold to non-Chinese owners. The Court rejected TikTok’s argument that the law violated First Amendment right by limiting free speech. Three days after the ruling and on his first day of his second
In Twitter, Inc. v. Taamneh (2023), the Supreme Court ruled that social media companies did not “aid and abet” an ISIS terrorist attack simply because their algorithms recommended ISIS content or they failed to remove content that recruited members and spread terrorist messages. The case overturned a ruling by the 9th U. S. Circuit