Case: 21-51178
Document: 00516474571
Page: 28
Date Filed: 09/16/2022
No. 21-51178
a.
Let’s start with compelled speech. In Miami Herald, the Supreme
Court held that Florida’s right-of-reply law was unconstitutional because it
compelled newspapers to speak. Crucially, the Court emphasized that “[a]
newspaper is more than a passive receptable or conduit for news, comment,
or advertising.” Miami Herald, 418 U.S. at 258. Rather, a newspaper curates
and publishes a narrow “choice of material” in accordance with the
“editorial control and judgment” of its editors. Ibid. Thus, when a newspaper
affirmatively chooses to publish something, it says that particular speech—
at the very least—should be heard and discussed. So forcing a newspaper to
run this or that column is tantamount to forcing the newspaper to speak.
The Platforms are nothing like the newspaper in Miami Herald. Unlike
newspapers, the Platforms exercise virtually no editorial control or judgment.
The Platforms use algorithms to screen out certain obscene and spam-related
content. 8 And then virtually everything else is just posted to the Platform
with zero editorial control or judgment. “Something well north of 99% of
th[is] content . . . never gets reviewed further. The content on a site is, to that
extent, invisible to the [Platform].” NetChoice, LLC v. Moody, 546 F. Supp.
3d 1082, 1092 (N.D. Fla. 2021). Thus the Platforms, unlike newspapers, are
primarily “conduit[s] for news, comment, and advertising.” Miami Herald,
418 U.S. at 258. And that’s why the Supreme Court has described them as
“the modern public square.” Packingham, 137 S. Ct. at 1737; see also Biden v.
Knight First Amend. Inst., 141 S. Ct. 1220, 1224 (2021) (Thomas, J.,
concurring) (noting Platforms are also “unlike newspapers” in that they
8
The Platforms have disclosed little about their algorithms in this appeal, other
than suggesting that they “often moderate certain policy-violating content before users see
it.” The Platforms never suggest their algorithms somehow exercise substantive,
discretionary review akin to newspaper editors.
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