Document ID: ./input/supremecourt_opinions/opinions/23pdf/22-277_d18f.pdf
Page Number: 26.0

20 

MOODY v. NETCHOICE, LLC 

Opinion of the Court 

just  described.  Those  principles  have  served  the  Nation 
well over many years, even as one communications method 
has given way to another.  And they have much to say about 
the laws at issue here.  These cases, to be sure, are at an 
early stage; the record is incomplete even as to the major
social-media platforms’ main feeds, much less the other ap-
plications that must now be considered.  See supra, at 12. 
But  in  reviewing  the  District  Court’s  preliminary  injunc-
tion,  the  Fifth  Circuit  got  its  likelihood-of-success  finding 
wrong.  Texas is not likely to succeed in enforcing its law 
against the platforms’ application of their content-moderation
policies to the feeds that were the focus of the proceedings 
below.  And that is because of the core teaching elaborated 
in  the  above-summarized  decisions:  The  government  may
not, in supposed pursuit of better expressive balance, alter
a private speaker’s own editorial choices about the mix of
speech it wants to convey.

Most  readers  are  likely  familiar  with  Facebook’s  News
Feed or YouTube’s homepage; assuming so, feel free to skip 
this paragraph (and maybe a couple more).  For the unini-
tiated, though, each of those feeds presents a user with a 
continually updating stream of other users’ posts.  For Fa-
cebook’s  News  Feed,  any  user  may  upload  a  message,
whether verbal or visual, with content running the gamut 
from “vacation pictures from friends” to “articles from local 
or national news outlets.”  App. in No. 22–555, at 139a.  And 
whenever a user signs on, Facebook delivers a personalized 
collection of those stories.  Similarly for YouTube.  Its users 
upload all manner of videos.  And any person opening the 
website  or  mobile  app  receives  an  individualized  list  of 
video recommendations. 

The  key  to  the  scheme  is  prioritization  of  content,
achieved through the use of algorithms.  Of the billions of 
posts or videos (plus advertisements) that could wind up on
a user’s customized feed or recommendations list, only the 
tiniest fraction do.  The selection and ranking is most often