The US Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a Republican-led bid to curb government contact with social media companies to moderate their content, a ruling that could bolster official efforts to fight misinformation in a key election year.
The decision hands a win to President Joe Biden's administration and top government agencies ahead of the presidential vote in November, allowing them to continue notifying major platforms such as Facebook and X about what they deem as false or hateful content.
The justices, voting 6-3, threw out the case on the grounds that the challengers -- including two states and social media users -- had not suffered a direct injury that provided a legal standing to sue.
"The plaintiffs, without any concrete link between their injuries and the defendants' conduct, ask us to conduct a review of the years-long communications between dozens of federal officials, across different agencies, with different social-media platforms, about different topics," Justice Amy Coney Barrett wrote for the majority.
"This court's standing doctrine prevents us from (exercising such) general legal oversight of the other branches of government."
The decision was a setback for conservative advocates who allege that the government has pressured or colluded with major platforms to censor right-leaning content under the guise of fighting misinformation.
"For months, high-ranking government officials placed unrelenting pressure on Facebook to suppress Americans' free speech," wrote Justice Samuel Alito, who dissented along with Justices Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch.
"Because the court unjustifiably refuses to address this serious threat to the First Amendment, I respectfully dissent," Alito added, asserting that one of the plaintiffs had a legal standing to sue.
US top court declines to curb govt contact with social media firms
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