Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/23pdf/22-277_d18f.pdf
Page Number: 29

Cite as:  603 U. S. ____ (2024) 

23 

Opinion of the Court 

post’s viewpoint.8  And what does that “based on viewpoint”
requirement entail?  Doubtless some of the platforms’ content-
moderation practices are based on characteristics of speech 
other  than  viewpoint  (e.g.,  on  subject  matter).    But  if 
Texas’s law is enforced, the platforms could not—as they in 
fact do now—disfavor posts because they: 

  support Nazi ideology; 
  advocate for terrorism; 
  espouse racism, Islamophobia, or anti-Semitism; 
  glorify rape or other gender-based violence; 
  encourage teenage suicide and self-injury; 
  discourage the use of vaccines; 
  advise phony treatments for diseases; 
  advance false claims of election fraud. 

The list could continue for a while.9  The point of it is not
that  the  speech  environment  created  by  Texas’s  law  is 
worse than the ones to which the major platforms aspire on 
their  main  feeds.    The  point  is  just  that  Texas’s  law  pro-
foundly alters the platforms’ choices about the views they
will, and will not, convey.

And we have time and again held that type of regulation 
to interfere with protected speech.  Like the editors, cable 
—————— 

8 The Texas solicitor general explained at oral argument that the Texas
law allows the platforms to remove “categories” of speech, so long as they 
are not based on viewpoint.  See Tr. of Oral Arg. in No. 22–555, at 69– 
70; §120.052 (Acceptable Use Policy).  The example he gave was speech 
about Al-Qaeda.  Under the law, a platform could remove all posts about
Al-Qaeda,  regardless  of  viewpoint.  But  it  could  not  stop  the  “pro-
Al-Qaeda” speech alone; it would have to stop the “anti-Al-Qaeda” speech 
too.  Tr. of Oral Arg. in No. 22–555, at 70.  So again, the law, as described 
by  the  solicitor  general,  prevents  the  platforms  from  disfavoring  posts 
because they express one view of a subject. 

9 Details on both the enumerated examples and similar ones are found
in Facebook’s Community Standards and YouTube’s Community Guide-
lines.  See https://transparency.meta.com/policies/community-standards;
https://support.google.com/youtube/answer/9288567.