6
MOODY v. NETCHOICE, LLC
Opinion of the Court
content-moderation provisions, restricting covered platforms’ choices about whether and how to display usergenerated content to the public.
And both include
individualized-explanation provisions, requiring platforms
to give reasons for particular content-moderation choices.
Florida’s law regulates “social media platforms,” as defined expansively, that have annual gross revenue of over
$100 million or more than 100 million monthly active users.
Fla. Stat. §501.2041(1)(g) (2023).1 The statute restricts varied ways of “censor[ing]” or otherwise disfavoring posts—
including deleting, altering, labeling, or deprioritizing
them—based on their content or source. §501.2041(1)(b).
For example, the law prohibits a platform from taking those
actions against “a journalistic enterprise based on the content of its publication or broadcast.” §501.2041(2)(j). Similarly, the law prevents deprioritizing posts by or about political candidates. See §501.2041(2)(h). And the law
requires platforms to apply their content-moderation practices to users “in a consistent manner.” §501.2041(2)(b).
In addition, the Florida law mandates that a platform
provide an explanation to a user any time it removes or alters any of her posts. See §501.2041(2)(d)(1). The requisite
notice must be delivered within seven days, and contain
both a “thorough rationale” for the action and an account of
how the platform became aware of the targeted material.
§501.2041(3).
The Texas law regulates any social-media platform, having over 50 million monthly active users, that allows its users “to communicate with other users for the primary purpose of posting information, comments, messages, or
images.” Tex. Bus. & Com. Code Ann. §§120.001(1),
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1 The definition of “social-media platforms” covers “any information
service, system, Internet search engine, or access software provider” that
“[p]rovides or enables computer access by multiple users to a computer
server, including an Internet platform or a social media site.” Fla. Stat.
§501.2041(1)(g)(1).