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The Supreme Court decided Friday that there are indeed some internet limitations on free speech. But not like it sounds, they are restricting the ability to curtail it.<\/p>\n
The decision was based on two lower court cases from California and Michigan in which it was ruled that public officials could block or ban critics on social media.<\/p>\n
In unanimous decisions in two cases from California and Michigan, the justices set a new standard for determining if public officials acted in a governmental capacity when blocking critics on social media – a test to be applied in lawsuits accusing them of violating the First Amendment.<\/p>\n
First Amendment protections for free speech generally constrain government actors, not private individuals. Under the new test, officials are considered to have engaged in governmental action if they had “actual authority to speak on behalf of the state on a particular matter” and “purported to exercise that authority in the relevant posts.”<\/p>\n
The justices threw out decisions by lower courts in the two cases involving lawsuits brought under the First Amendment by people who were blocked after posting criticisms on the social media accounts of local officials. The justices directed the lower courts to revisit the cases based on the new standard.<\/p>\n