Clay Calvert, University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications professor emeritus and former director of the Marion B. Brechner First Amendment Project, is the author of “Supreme Court Must Step in to Defend the Editorial Rights of Social Media Platforms” published on thehill.com on Jan. 29.

Calvert focuses on a challenge to two Florida and Texas statutes that violate social media platforms’ First Amendment free speech rights. The U.S. Supreme Court may soon weigh in on the matter.

According to Calvert, “Resting in the justices’ hands will be the platforms’ ability to determine and curate for themselves — as business entities, free from government censorship — the content they host, where they host it and, ultimately, the types of communities they maintain. Facebook, for example, bans hate speech and ‘particularly violent and graphic’ content in defining its community standards.”

“The First Amendment only protects citizens from censorship by the government, not from decisions made by private entities like social media platforms,” said Calvert, “Thus, when Florida and Texas paternalistically dictate the content that platforms must host and how they curate it (where and in what order it must appear), constitutional red flags are waved because the platforms’ First Amendment rights are gored.”

He adds, “Social media platforms are not traditional newspapers. But, like newspapers, they are media entities, publishing and disseminating speech. Platforms also speak for themselves when adopting and publishing standards about unacceptable content. The Supreme Court should agree to hear both cases and not allow Florida and Texas to violate these First Amendment-safeguarded prerogatives.“

Calvert was also quoted in “Federal Appeals Court Ruling Offers Window Into Battle Over Free Speech and Abortion Access After Roe” published in USA Today on Jan. 22. The article focuses on free speech as the next frontier in the fight around access to abortion in a post-Roe world.

Calvert comments on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6^th Circuit decision to allow a preliminary injunction blocking a May 2021 Louisville, Kentucky, ordinance that put in place a 10-foot buffer zone near the entrances of medical facilities, including abortion clinics.

“What’s really interesting here, is this is simply a 10-foot buffer zone. If (you) visualize a football field and picture five yards, this is only three yards and one foot,” said Calvert. “The plaintiffs really want to be able to engage in a one-on-one conversation where they can literally reach out and hand a flyer or leaflet to people who are entering the clinic. So, if essentially you can’t really have a 10-foot buffer zone around the entrance … can you really have any buffer zone at all?”

Posted: February 1, 2023
Category: College News
Tagged as: Clay Calvert, Marion B. Brechner First Amendment Project