President Biden welcomed guests to the White House last week for the inaugural United We Stand Summit, an event to combat hate speech and violence. “There are core values that should bring us together as Americans, and one of them is standing together against hate, racism, bigotry, and violence that have long haunted and plagued our nation,” Biden told the bipartisan group. Participants gave the president a standing ovation when he specified that he will work to “hold social media companies accountable for spreading hate.” “I’m calling on Congress to get rid of special immunity for social media companies and impose much stronger transparency requirements,” Biden said.

Biden’s intended goal of abolishing social media’s Section 230 immunity comes as the Supreme Court appears poised to agree to hear a case determining whether to affirm the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit’s decision upholding a Texas law limiting the ability of large social media companies to moderate content, particularly as it affects political speech. Many feel that if it is permitted to go into effect, the Texas law (HB-20) would open a floodgate of online hate speech.

The Supreme Court already voted 5-4 to prevent the Texas law from going into effect without further analysis, which the Fifth Circuit Appeals Court on Friday provided, writing that large social platforms are more like common carriers, or utilities, than newspapers, and therefore do not deserve First Amendment protections of their own.

The Court supported its position by claiming Section 230 proves “Congress’s judgment that the platforms do not operate like traditional publishers and are not ‘speaking’ when they host user-submitted content.” Lawfare features an in-depth analysis of the 5th Circuit opinion.

Earlier this year, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 11th Circuit took a position opposite that of the 5th Circuit, voting unanimously to hold a similar Florida law unconstitutional in eliminating “protections for tech companies that do not want to host views on their platforms that they find hateful, divisive or false,” according to The Washington Post, which writes that the 11th “criticized a depiction of social media platforms as ‘dumb pipes … reflexively transmitting data from point A to point B.’”

Disagreements between the federal circuits about important legal issues being hugely influential in the Supreme Court deciding to hear a case, the matter appears headed for a showdown. “Florida’s petition challenging the 11th Circuit ruling is due at the high court Wednesday,” WaPo writes.

At the White House summit, Biden did his part to advocate for civil discourse, announcing “federal agencies would allocate resources to help law enforcement, houses of worship and schools report and identify hate-fueled violence” while also calling for “‘a new era of service’ at organizations like AmeriCorps to foster stronger community dialogue,” The Hill reports.

The president also announced Dignity.us, “a bipartisan initiative led by former White House officials who served in both Democratic and Republican administrations to foster dialogues in communities across the country,” according to The Hill.

Related:
Social Media Companies Now Have to Tell California What Their Hate Speech and Disinfo Policies Are, Gizmodo, 9/14/22
Biden Calls on the Country to Unite Against White Supremacy at a Summit on Hate, NPR, 9/15/22
Social Media Companies Still Boost Election Fraud Claims, Report Says, The New York Times, 9/19/22
Pentagon Orders Review of Its Overseas Social Media Campaigns, The New York Times, 9/19/22