David L. Sloss (Santa Clara University - School of Law) has posted Murthy v. Missouri: Jawboning, Social Media and the First Amendment on SSRN. Here is the abstract:
In Murthy v. Missouri, two states and five social media users sued numerous federal government defendants, claiming that they coerced social media platforms to suppress protected First Amendment speech. The trial court granted a broad preliminary injunction in favor of the plaintiffs. The Fifth Circuit affirmed in part, granting a much narrower injunction, while still restricting communication between the government and social media companies. The Supreme Court reversed the Fifth Circuit on the grounds that none of the plaintiffs had standing to sue. Ultimately, Murthy leaves unanswered one of the central questions of First Amendment law in the age of social media: in what circumstances can we (or should we) trust government experts to decide what content on social media platforms is both false and dangerous? The Supreme Court has not yet seriously grappled with that question.
