News Release
For Immediate Release: 1.24.24
Contact: John Manning, media@firstliberty.org
Direct: 972-941-4453
Babylon Bee, Not the Bee Urge SCOTUS to Uphold Florida, Texas Laws that Prevent Social Media Censorship
Satire and news websites identify multiple instances of viewpoint-targeted censorship and shadow-banning by social media platforms.
Washington, D.C.—First Liberty Institute and the law firm Consovoy McCarthy PLLC filed a friend-of-the-court brief at the Supreme Court of the United States on behalf of the Babylon Bee LLC and Not the Bee LLC in Ashley Moody, Attorney General of Florida, et. al., v NetChoice LLC, et. al., and NetChoice LLC, et al. v. Attorney General of Texas, et al. In these cases, the Court will review state laws that prohibit social media platforms from inconsistently applying their content standards to target disfavored speakers or viewpoints.
You can read the brief here.
“Censorship is no laughing matter. For too long, social media giants have censored conservative and religious speech with which they disagree,” said Jeremy Dys, Senior Counsel for First Liberty Institute. “These laws are basic consumer-protection regulations that simply hold social media platforms accountable to the image of neutrality that they project, and they are consistent with federal law and the First Amendment.”
The Babylon Bee, LLC, is a website that exposes foolishness, mocks absurdity, and highlights hypocrisy in faith, politics, and culture through satire, humor, and parody. Not the Bee, LLC, is a Christian news website that runs entirely accurate headlines one might expect to find in The Bee. Both sites have experienced censorship and shadow-banning by social media platforms.
According to First Liberty’s brief, “Censoring, deplatforming, and shadow-banning targeted viewpoints through inconsistent application of standards is hardly motivated by “honesty in belief or purpose.” It certainly doesn’t align with what social media companies tell the public. Nowhere in Twitter’s, Facebook’s, or Instagram’s user agreements will one find a provision announcing that their standards will be applied one way for conservatives, and another way for everyone else. Systematically inconsistent censorship under cover of supposedly neutral standards is dishonesty, plain and simple.”
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About First Liberty Institute
First Liberty Institute is the largest legal organization in the nation dedicated exclusively to defending religious freedom for all Americans.
To arrange an interview, contact John Manning at media@firstliberty.org or by calling 972-941-4453.
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