# Free Speech and the Regulation of Social Media Content

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URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/documents/crs%3AR45650

## Record

- **Collection:** Congressional research report
- **Document type:** CRS Report
- **Published:** March 27, 2019
- **Citation:** R45650

## Text

Free Speech and the Regulation of
Social Media Content
Valerie C. Brannon
Legislative Attorney
March 27, 2019

Congressional Research Service
7-....
www.crs.gov
R45650

SUMMARY

Free Speech and the Regulation of
Social Media Content
As the Supreme Court has recognized, social media sites like Facebook and Twitter have become
important venues for users to exercise free speech rights protected under the First Amendment.
Commentators and legislators, however, have questioned whether these social media platforms
are living up to their reputation as digital public forums. Some have expressed concern that these
sites are not doing enough to counter violent or false speech. At the same time, many argue that
the platforms are unfairly banning and restricting access to potentially valuable speech.

R45650
March 27, 2019
Valerie C. Brannon
Legislative Attorney
-re-acte--@crs.loc.gov
For a copy of the full report,
please call 7-.... or visit
www.crs.gov.

Currently, federal law does not offer much recourse for social media users who seek to challenge a social media provider’s
decision about whether and how to present a user’s content. Lawsuits predicated on these sites’ decisions to host or remove
content have been largely unsuccessful, facing at least two significant barriers under existing federal law. First, while
individuals have sometimes alleged that these companies violated their free speech rights by discriminating against users’
content, courts have held that the First Amendment, which provides protection against state action, is not implicated by the
actions of these private companies. Second, courts have concluded that many non-constitutional claims are barred by Section
230 of the Communications Decency Act, 47 U.S.C. § 230, which provides immunity to providers of interactive computer
services, including social media providers, both for certain decisions to host content created by others and for actions taken
“voluntarily” and “in good faith” to restrict access to “objectionable” material.
Some have argued that Congress should step in to regulate social media sites. Government action regulating internet content
would constitute state action that may implicate the First Amendment. In particular, social media providers may argue that
government regulations impermissibly infringe on the providers’ own constitutional free speech rights. Legal commentators
have argued that when social media platforms decide whether and how to post users’ content, these publication decisions are
themselves protected under the First Amendment. There are few court decisions evaluating whether a social media site, by
virtue of publishing, organizing, or even editing protected speech, is itself exercising free speech rights. Consequently,
commentators have largely analyzed the question of whether the First Amendment protects a social media site’s publication
decisions by analogy to other types of First Amendment cases. There are at least three possible frameworks for analyzing
governmental restrictions on social media sites’ ability to moderate user content.
First, using the analogue of the company town, social media sites could be treated as state actors who are themselves bound
to follow the First Amendment when they regulate protected speech. If social media sites were treated as state actors under
the First Amendment, then the Constitution itself would constrain their conduct, even absent legislative regulation. The
second possible framework would view social media sites as analogous to special industries like common carriers or
broadcast media. The Court has historically allowed greater regulation of these industries’ speech, given the need to protect
public access for users of their services. Under the second framework, if special aspects of social media sites threaten the use
of the medium for communicative or expressive purposes, courts might approve of content-neutral regulations intended to
solve those problems. The third analogy would treat social media sites like news editors, who generally receive the full
protections of the First Amendment when making editorial decisions. If social media sites were considered to be equivalent
to newspaper editors when they make decisions about whether and how to present users’ content, then those editorial
decisions would receive the broadest protections under the First Amendment. Any government regulations that alter the
editorial choices of social media sites by forcing them to host content that they would not otherwise transmit, or requiring
them to take down content they would like to host, could be subject to strict scrutiny. A number of federal trial courts have
held that search engines exercise editorial judgment protected by the First Amendment when they make decisions about
whether and how to present specific websites or advertisements in search results, seemingly adopting this last framework.
Which of these three frameworks applies will depend largely on the particular action being regulated. Under existing law,
social media platforms may be more likely to receive First Amendment protection when they exercise more editorial
discretion in presenting user-generated content, rather than if they neutrally transmit all such content. In addition, certain
types of speech receive less protection under the First Amendment. Courts may be more likely to uphold regulations targeting
certain disfavored categories of speech such as obscenity or speech inciting violence. Finally, if a law targets a social media
site’s conduct rather than speech, it may not trigger the protections of the First Amendment at all.

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Contents
Existing Legal Barriers to Private Lawsuits Against Social Media Providers ................................ 4
First Amendment: State Action Requirement............................................................................ 5
Section 230 of the CDA ............................................................................................................ 9
Section 230(c)(1) ............................................................................................................... 11
Section 230(c)(2) .............................................................................................................. 13
First Amendment Limits on Government Regulation of Social Media Content ........................... 15
Background Principles: First Amendment Protections Online................................................ 17
Social Media Sites: Providing a Digital Public Square ........................................................... 21
Social Media Sites as Company Towns ............................................................................ 23
Social Media Sites as Broadcasters or Cable Providers .................................................... 27
Social Media Sites as Editors ............................................................................................ 33
Considerations for Congress.......................................................................................................... 40

Contacts
Author Contact Information .......................................................................................................... 43

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ne of the core purposes of the First Amendment’s Free Speech Clause is to foster “an
uninhibited marketplace of ideas,”1 testing the “truth” of various ideas “in the
competition of the market.”2 Social media sites3 provide one avenue for the
transmission of those ideas.4 The Supreme Court has recognized that the internet in
general, and social media sites in particular, are “important places” for people to
“speak and listen,” observing that “social media users employ these websites to engage in a wide
array of protected First Amendment activity.”5 Users of social media sites such as Facebook,
Twitter, YouTube, or Instagram can use these platforms to post art or news,6 debate political
issues,7 and document their lives.8 In a study conducted in early 2018, the Pew Research Center
found that 68% of U.S. adults use Facebook, 35% use Instagram, and 24% report using Twitter.9
These sites not only allow users to post content, they also connect users with each other, allowing
users to seek out friends and content and often recommending new connections to the user.10 On
most social media platforms, users can then send content to specific people, or set permissions
allowing only certain people to view that content. Through human curation and the use of
algorithms, these platforms decide how content is displayed to other users.11 In curating this
content, social media sites may also edit user content, combine it, or draft their own additions to
that content.12 These platforms are generally free to users, and make revenue by selling targeted

O

1 Virginia v. Hicks, 539 U.S. 113, 119 (2003).
2 Abrams v. United States, 250 U.S. 616, 630 (1919) (Holmes, J., dissenting). Accord, e.g., Red Lion Broad. Co. v.

FCC, 395 U.S. 367, 390 (1969).
3 The report does not precisely define the term “social media site,” given that most of the cases defining First
Amendment rights on the internet focus more on various companies’ actions than their character. For one possible
taxonomy of internet “intermediaries” proposed for future First Amendment analysis, see David S. Ardia, Free Speech
Savior or Shield for Scoundrels: An Empirical Study of Intermediary Immunity under Section 230 of the
Communications Decency Act, 43 LOY. L.A. L. REV. 373, 386–87 (2010).
4 See, e.g., Nicholas A. Primrose, Has Society Become Tolerant of Further Infringement on First Amendment Rights?,
19 BARRY L. REV. 313, 333 (2014) (“Social media is the ideal ‘marketplace’ for the 21st century; it creates a dynamic
place for every conceivable opinion to be expressed and shared.”).
5 Packingham v. North Carolina, 137 S. Ct. 1730, 1735–36 (2017).
6 See, e.g., Elisa Shearer, Social Media Outpaces Print Newspapers in the U.S. as a News Source, PEW RESEARCH CTR.
FACT TANK (Dec. 10, 2018), https://pewrsr.ch/2UvWPSe.
7 See, e.g., Kristen Bialik, 14% of Americans Have Changed their Mind about an Issue Because of Something They Saw
on Social Media, PEW RESEARCH CTR. FACT TANK (Aug. 15, 2018), https://pewrsr.ch/2Bc5TWF.
8 See, e.g., Aaron Smith & Monica Anderson, Social Media Use in 2018, PEW RESEARCH CTR. FACT TANK (Mar. 1,
2018), https://pewrsr.ch/2FDfiFd.
9 Id.
10 While many social media platforms are primarily centered around connections with friends or followers, this is not
universally true. For example, commentators have discussed the app TikTok as an alternative to this friend-centric
approach, noting that the platform opens to a page full of content that an algorithm has determined may interest the user
based on past usage habits, rather than to a feed of friends’ content. See, e.g., Caroline Haskins, TikTok Can’t Save Us
from Algorithmic Content Hell, VICE MOTHERBOARD (Jan. 31, 2019), https://bit.ly/2Jlu1dF; John Herrman, How TikTok
Is Rewriting the World, N.Y. TIMES (Mar. 10, 2019), https://nyti.ms/2Hm0ygS.
11 See, e.g., Paul Hitlin & Lee Rainie, Facebook Algorithms and Personal Data, PEW RESEARCH CTR. (Jan. 16, 2019),
https://pewrsr.ch/2Hnqr1o; Will Oremus, Twitter’s New Order, SLATE (Mar. 5, 2017), https://bit.ly/2lMs0pU.
12 For example, Twitter sometimes creates “Moments,” which it describes as “curated stories showcasing the very best
of what’s happening on Twitter.” About Moments, TWITTER, https://bit.ly/2x0AxOt (last visited Mar. 27, 2019).

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advertising space,13 among other things.14 Thus, social media sites engage in a wide variety of
activities, at least some of which entail hosting—and creating—constitutionally protected speech.
Social media companies have recognized their role in providing platforms for speech.15 To take
one example, in a September 2018 hearing before the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence,
the founder and Chief Executive Officer of Twitter, Jack Dorsey, repeatedly referred to Twitter as
a “digital public square,” emphasizing the importance of “free and open exchange” on the
platform.16 Critically, however, social media sites also have content-moderation policies under
which they may remove certain content. Further, these sites determine how content is presented:
who sees it, when, and where. As one scholar has said, social media sites “create rules and
systems to curate speech out of a sense of corporate social responsibility, but also . . . because
their economic viability depends on meeting users’ speech and community norms.”17 Speech
posted on the internet “exists in an architecture of privately owned websites, servers, routers, and
backbones,” and its existence online is subject to the rules of those private companies.18
Consequently, one First Amendment scholar predicted ten years ago that “the most important
decisions affecting the future of freedom of speech will not occur in constitutional law; they will
be decisions about technological design, legislative and administrative regulations, the formation
of new business models, and the collective activities of end-users.”19
Social media companies have come under increased scrutiny regarding the type of user content
that they allow to be posted on their sites, and the ways in which they may promote—or
deemphasize—certain content. A wide variety of people have expressed concern that these sites
do not do enough to counter harmful, offensive, or false content.20 At the same time, others have

13 See, e.g., Kalev Leetaru, What Does It Mean For Social Media Platforms To “Sell” Our Data?, FORBES (Dec. 15,

2018), https://bit.ly/2W5MfRL; Louise Matsakis, Facebook’s Targeted Ads Are More Complex Than It Lets On,
WIRED (Apr. 25, 2018, 4:04 PM), https://bit.ly/2DZ1CG0.
14
Some otherwise free sites include a subscription option, allowing certain users to pay fees to access premium content
or unlock certain features. See, e.g., LinkedIn Free Accounts and Premium Subscriptions, LINKEDIN,
https://bit.ly/2sRWDhR (last visited Mar. 27, 2019).
15 See, e.g., Foreign Influence Operations’ Use of Social Media Platforms: Hearing Before the S. Select Comm. on
Intelligence, 115th Cong. (Sept. 5, 2018) [hereinafter Hearing on Foreign Influence Operations] (statement of Jack
Dorsey, CEO of Twitter) (“[W]e believe that the people use Twitter as they would a public square and they often have
the same expectations that they would have of any public space. For our part, we see our platform as hosting and
serving conversations.”); Facebook, Social Media Privacy, and the Use and Abuse of Data: Hearing Before the S.
Comm. on the Judiciary and the S. Comm. on Commerce, Sci. & Transp., 115th Cong. (Apr. 10, 2018) (statement of
Mark Zuckerberg, CEO of Facebook) (“[W]e consider ourselves to be a platform for all ideas.”).
16 Hearing on Foreign Influence Operations, supra note 15.
17 Kate Klonick, The New Governors: The People, Rules, and Processes Governing Online Speech, 131 HARV. L. REV.
1598, 1625 (2018).
18 Jonathan Peters, The “Sovereigns of Cyberspace” and State Action: The First Amendment’s Application—or Lack
Thereof—to Third-Party Platforms, 32 BERKELEY TECH. L.J. 989, 990 (2017).
19 Jack M. Balkin, Free Speech and Press in the Digital Age: The Future of Free Expression in a Digital Age, 36 PEPP.
L. REV. 427, 427 (2009).
20 E.g., Anne Applebaum, Regulate Social Media Now. The Future of Democracy is at Stake., WASH. POST (Feb. 1,
2019), https://wapo.st/2T4SmYS; John Carroll & David Karpf, How Can Social Media Firms Tackle Hate Speech?,
KNOWLEDGE AT WHARTON U. PENN. (Sept. 22, 2018), https://whr.tn/2DuFeFH; David Dayen, Ban Targeted
Advertising, THE NEW REPUBLIC (Apr. 10, 2018), https://bit.ly/2GRrT7z; Danielle Kurtzleben, Did Fake News On
Facebook Help Elect Trump? Here’s What We Know, NPR (Apr. 11, 218, 7:00 AM), https://n.pr/2GPdMDP; Caroline
O’Donovan & Logan McDonald, YouTube Continues To Promote Anti-Vax Videos As Facebook Prepares To Fight
Medical Misinformation, BUZZFEED NEWS (Feb. 20, 2019), https://bit.ly/2IWjIN5. Cf., e.g., Mehreen Khan, More
‘Hate Speech’ Being Removed from Social Media, FINANCIAL TIMES (Feb. 2, 2019), https://on.ft.com/2EO6YCR.

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argued that the platforms take down or deemphasize too much legitimate content.21 In the
September 2018 hearing referenced above, Sheryl Sandberg, the Chief Operating Officer of
Facebook, expressed the difficulty of determining what types of speech would violate company
standards barring hate speech.22 Both Dorsey and Facebook founder and Chief Executive Officer
Mark Zuckerberg have been asked to respond to allegations of political bias in their platforms’
content moderation decisions at hearings before House and Senate committees.23 Commentators
and legislators alike have questioned whether social media sites’ content policies are living up to
the free speech ideals they have espoused.24 As a result, some, including Members of Congress,25
have called for regulation of social media platforms, focused on the way those companies police
content.26
In light of this public policy debate, this report begins by outlining the current legal framework
governing social media sites’ treatment of users’ content, focusing on the First Amendment and
Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act of 1996 (CDA).27 As explained below, under
existing law, lawsuits predicated on these sites’ decisions to remove or to host content have been
largely unsuccessful because of (1) doctrines that prevent the First Amendment from being
applied to private social media companies,28 and (2) Section 230 of the CDA, which often
protects social media companies from being held liable under federal or state laws for these
21 See, e.g., Mike Isaac & Sydney Ember, Live Footage of Shootings Forces Facebook to Confront New Role, N.Y.

TIMES (July 8, 2016), https://nyti.ms/2CpLI37; Eli Rosenberg, Facebook Censored a Post for ‘Hate Speech.’ It Was the
Declaration of Independence., WASH. POST. (July 5, 2018), https://wapo.st/2SRj4zN; Liam Stack, What Is a ‘Shadow
Ban,’ and Is Twitter Doing It to Republican Accounts?, N.Y. TIMES (July 26, 2018), https://nyti.ms/2NRWLYC; Jillian
C. York & Karen Gullo, Offline/Online Project Highlights How the Oppression Marginalized Communities Face in the
Real World Follows Them Online, ELEC. FRONTIER FOUND. (Mar. 6, 2018), https://bit.ly/2ulHdon.
22 Hearing on Foreign Influence Operations, supra note 15. See also, e.g., Jason Koebler & Joseph Cox, The
Impossible Job: Inside Facebook’s Struggle to Moderate Two Billion People, VICE MOTHERBOARD (Aug. 23, 2018,
1:15 PM), https://bit.ly/2wtRboq.
23 Hearing on Foreign Influence Operations, supra note 15; Twitter: Transparency and Accountability: Hearing Before
the H. Comm. on Energy & Commerce, 115th Cong. (Sept. 5, 2018); Facebook, Social Media Privacy, and the Use and
Abuse of Data: Hearing Before the S. Comm. on the Judiciary and the S. Comm. on Commerce, Sci. & Transp., 115th
Cong. (Apr. 10, 2018). See also, e.g., Langdon v. Google, Inc., 474 F. Supp. 2d 622, 627 (D. Del. 2007) (“Plaintiff
alleges that [Google’s] rejection or acceptance of ads is based upon . . . the political viewpoint of the ad . . . .”).
24 See, e.g., William Cummings, Republican Lawmakers Go after Facebook CEO Zuckerberg for Anti-Conservative
Bias, USA TODAY (Apr. 11, 2018), https://bit.ly/2BTQ5VH; Mattathias Schwartz, Facebook and Twitter’s Rehearsed
Dance on Capitol Hill, THE NEW YORKER (Sept. 6, 2018), https://bit.ly/2VqgDXG.
25 To take one example, a bill was introduced in the 115th Congress, the Honest Ads Act, that would have ensured that
disclosure requirements for political advertisements apply to advertising on social media. S. 1989, 115th Cong. (2017).
Both Facebook and Twitter expressed support for this act. E.g., Selina Wang, Twitter Follows Facebook in Endorsing
Senate’s ‘Honest Ads’ Act, BLOOMBERG (Apr. 10, 2018), https://bloom.bg/2Y8m7rm.
26 See, e.g., Mark Epstein, Google’s Effort To Undermine Free Speech Strengthens Case for Regulating Big Tech, THE
HILL (Aug. 31, 2017), https://bit.ly/2Rs0OjT; Makena Kelly, Sen. Josh Hawley Is Making the Conservative Case
Against Facebook, THE VERGE (Mar. 19, 2019, 8:00 AM), https://bit.ly/2Tf9S8B; David McCabe, Key Republican
Warns Big Tech: Step Up or Be Regulated, AXIOS (Feb. 28, 2018), https://bit.ly/2OlgqC5; Katy Steinmetz, Lawmakers
Hint at Regulating Social Media During Hearing with Facebook and Twitter Execs, TIME (Sept. 5, 2018),
https://bit.ly/2Rv4tgX; Craig Timberg, Tony Romm & Elizabeth Dwoskin, Lawmakers Agree Social Media Needs
Regulation, But Say Prompt Federal Action Is Unlikely, WASH. POST (Apr. 11, 2018), https://wapo.st/2OekLqD. Cf.,
e.g., Ben Brody, Ted Cruz Echoes Elizabeth Warren’s Criticism of Facebook’s Power, BLOOMBERG (Mar. 12, 2019,
3:25 PM), https://bloom.bg/2JAfqLF; Sen. Elizabeth Warren, Here’s How We Can Break Up Big Tech, MEDIUM (Mar.
8, 2019), https://bit.ly/2SRNIt5.
27 47 U.S.C. § 230. While this provision is often referred to as Section 230 of the CDA, it was enacted as Section 509
of the Telecommunications Act of 1996, which amended Section 230 of the Telecommunications Act of 1934. Pub. L.
No. 104-104, 110 Stat. 137 (1996).
28 See, e.g., Peters, supra note 18, at 992.

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decisions.29 The debate over whether the federal government should fill this legal vacuum has
raised the question as to whether and to what extent the federal government can regulate the way
social media sites present users’ content, either to require these sites to take down, restrict access
to, or qualify certain types of content, or, on the other hand, protect users’ rights to post content
on those sites.30 Such government regulation would constitute state action that implicates the First
Amendment.31 While the issue largely remains an open question in the courts, the First
Amendment may provide some protection for social media companies when they make content
presentation decisions, limiting the federal government’s ability to regulate those decisions.32 The
extent of any free speech protections will depend on how courts view social media companies and
the specific action being regulated.33
Accordingly, the bulk of this report explores how the First Amendment applies to social media
providers’ content presentation decisions. Looking to three possible analogues drawn from
existing First Amendment law, the report explores whether social media companies could be
viewed in the same way as company towns, broadcasters, or newspaper editors.34 The report also
explains the possible regulatory implications of each First Amendment framework as Congress
considers the novel legal issues raised by the regulation of social media.

Existing Legal Barriers to Private Lawsuits Against
Social Media Providers
Under current federal law, social media users may face at least two significant barriers if they
attempt to sue a social media provider for its decisions about hosting or limiting access to users’
content. The first, which likely applies only to lawsuits predicated on a platform’s decision to
remove rather than allow content,35 is the state action requirement of the First Amendment. The
state action doctrine provides that constitutional free speech protections generally apply only
29 See, e.g., Eric Goldman, Online User Account Termination and 47 U.S.C. § 230(c)(2), 2 U.C. IRVINE L. REV. 659,

662 (2012).
30 See supra notes 20 and 21.
31 Cf., e.g., Reno v. ACLU, 521 U.S. 844, 879 (1997) (holding that provisions of the CDA prohibiting the transmission
of certain “indecent” or “patently offensive” material to children are unconstitutional under the First Amendment).
32 See, e.g., Kate Klonick, The New Governors: The People, Rules, and Processes Governing Online Speech, 131
HARV. L. REV. 1598, 1612–13 (2018).
33 See, e.g., U.S. Telecom Ass’n v. FCC, 825 F.3d 674, 741–42 (D.C. Cir. 2016) (holding that net neutrality rules do
not violate the First Amendment, as applied to “the provision of internet access as common carriage,” but noting that
“insofar as a broadband provider might offer its own content—such as a news or weather site—separate from its
internet access service, the provider would receive the same protection under the First Amendment as other producers
of internet content”). In particular, legal commentators have disagreed regarding whether content originally created by
users should be treated in some circumstances as the platforms’ speech, given that these platforms often make editorial
decisions about whether and how to present that user-generated content. See, e.g., Stuart Minor Benjamin, Determining
What “The Freedom of Speech” Encompasses, 60 DUKE L.J. 1673, 1680 (2011).
34 See, e.g., Klonick, supra note 32, at 1658.
35 As discussed infra, “First Amendment: State Action Requirement,” the First Amendment protects against
government actions “abridging the freedom of speech.” U.S. CONST. amend. I. Logically, while parties may abridge
speech when they take down or restrict access to user content, they likely do not abridge speech by disseminating that
speech. The Supreme Court has held that the government can violate the First Amendment when, for example, it
requires speakers to accompany their speech with disclaimers or other notices. E.g., Nat’l Inst. of Family & Life
Advocates v. Becerra, 138 S. Ct. 2361, 2378 (2018). Nonetheless, in this context, the Court was not concerned by the
state’s decision to allow the original content, but by the fact that it required additional content, and was particularly
concerned that this additional content may “drown[] out” the original speech. See id. at 2378.

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when a person is harmed by an action of the government, rather than a private party.36 The second
legal barrier is the CDA’s Section 230, which offers broad immunity to “interactive computer
service” providers.37 Section 230(c)(1) provides immunity from any lawsuit that seeks to hold a
service provider liable for publishing information that was created by an “information content
provider,” effectively protecting social media sites from liability for hosting content.38 By
contrast, Section 230(c)(2) provides immunity for sites that take good faith action to restrict
access to content that the provider or users deem “obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively
violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable.”39 Thus, federal law does not currently provide a
recourse for many users who would like to challenge a social media site’s decision to ban or
restrict content, or to host content—and may affirmatively bar liability in certain circumstances.

First Amendment: State Action Requirement
The Free Speech Clause of the First Amendment provides that “Congress shall make no law . . .
abridging the freedom of speech”40 and applies to the “State[s]” through the Fourteenth
Amendment.41 Thus, the First Amendment, like other constitutional guarantees, generally applies
only against government action.42 As the Supreme Court has said, “while statutory or common
law may in some situations extend protection or provide redress against a private corporation or
person who seeks to abridge the free expression of others, no such protection or redress is
provided by the Constitution itself.”43 However, the Supreme Court has, in limited circumstances,
allowed First Amendment claims to proceed against seemingly private parties that abridge
protected speech.44
The clearest example of the Court extending the First Amendment to apply to the actions of a
private party comes from Marsh v. Alabama, where the Court held that the First Amendment
prohibited the punishment of a resident of a company-owned town for distributing religious
literature.45 While the town in question was owned by a private corporation, “it ha[d] all the
characteristics of any other American town,” including residences, businesses, streets, utilities,
public safety officers, and a post office.46 Under these circumstances, the Court held that “the
36 See, e.g., Lloyd Corp. v. Tanner, 407 U.S. 551, 567 (1972).
37 47 U.S.C. § 230(c). See, e.g., Klayman v. Zuckerberg, 753 F.3d 1354, 1358–59 (D.C. Cir. 2014) (discussing scope of

immunity provided by Section 230).
38 47 U.S.C. § 230(c)(1).
39 Id. § 230(c)(2).
40 U.S. CONST. amend. I (emphasis added). Although the text of the First Amendment refers to “Congress,” it has long
been understood to restrict action by the executive branch as well. See, e.g., Columbia Broad. Sys., Inc. v. Democratic
Nat’l Comm., 412 U.S. 94, 160 (1973) (Douglas, J., concurring) (describing First Amendment as restricting Congress,
whether “acting directly or through any of its agencies such as the FCC”); see generally, e.g., Daniel J. Hemel,
Executive Action and the First Amendment’s First Word, 40 PEPP. L. REV. 601 (2013).
41 44 Liquormart v. Rhode Island, 517 U.S. 484, 489 n.1 (1996); U.S. CONST. amend. XIV (“[N]o State shall . . .
deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law . . . .”).
42
See, e.g., Lloyd Corp. v. Tanner, 407 U.S. 551, 567 (1972).
43 Hudgens v. NLRB, 424 U.S. 507, 513 (1976).
44 See, e.g., Blum v. Yaretsky, 457 U.S. 991, 1004 (1982); Marsh v. Alabama, 326 U.S. 501, 508–09 (1946).
45 Marsh, 326 U.S. at 509. A state statute “ma[de] it a crime to enter or remain on the premises of another after having
been warned not to do so”; the resident had been warned that, pursuant to a company policy, she could not distribute
religious literature without a permit, and she subsequently disregarded that warning and refused to leave a sidewalk. Id.
at 503–04. Accordingly, although the case involved a criminal prosecution brought by the State of Alabama, liability
turned on the town’s ability to prevent residents from distributing literature without a permit. See id.
46 Id. at 502–03.

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corporation’s property interests” did not “settle the question”47: “[w]hether a corporation or a
municipality owns or possesses the town[,] the public in either case has an identical interest in the
functioning of the community in such manner that the channels of communication remain free.”48
Consequently, the corporation could not be permitted “to govern a community of citizens” in a
way that “restrict[ed] their fundamental liberties.”49 The Supreme Court has described Marsh as
embodying a “public function” test, under which the First Amendment will apply if a private
entity exercises “powers traditionally exclusively reserved to the State.”50
Since Marsh was issued in 1946, however, it has largely been limited to the facts presented in that
case. The Supreme Court extended the Marsh decision in 1968: in Amalgamated Food Employees
Union v. Logan Valley Plaza, the Court held that a private shopping mall could not prevent
individuals from peacefully picketing on the premises, noting similarities between “the business
block in Marsh and the shopping center” at issue in that case.51 However, the Court subsequently
disclaimed Logan Valley in Hudgens v. NLRB, rejecting the idea that “large self-contained
shopping center[s]” are “the functional equivalent of a municipality.”52 Instead, the Court held
that in Hudgens, where a shopping center manager had threatened to arrest picketers for
trespassing, “the constitutional guarantee of free expression ha[d] no part to play.”53 As a result,
the picketers “did not have a First Amendment right to enter this shopping center for the purpose
of advertising their strike.”54 In another decision in which the Supreme Court held that the First
Amendment did not prevent a shopping center from banning the distribution of handbills, the
Court distinguished Marsh by noting that “the owner of the company town was performing the
full spectrum of municipal powers and stood in the shoes of the State.”55 By contrast, the disputed
shopping center had not assumed “municipal functions or power.”56 The fact that the shopping
center was generally open to the public did not qualify as a “dedication of [the] privately owned
and operated shopping center to public use” sufficient “to entitle respondents to exercise therein
the asserted First Amendment rights.”57
Apart from the factual circumstances presented by the company town that exercises powers
“traditionally” and “exclusively” held by the government,58 the Court has sometimes applied the
First Amendment against private parties if they have a “sufficiently close relationship” to the
government.59 Such circumstances may exist where a private company “is subject to extensive
47 Id. at 505.
48 Id. at 507. See also id. at 508 (noting that residents of company towns, like residents of other towns, “must make

decisions which affect the welfare of community and nation,” and that to do this, they must have access to
“uncensored” information).
49 Id. at 509.
50 Jackson v. Metro. Edison Co., 419 U.S. 345, 352 (1974) (emphasis added). Accord Lugar v. Edmonson Oil Co., 457
U.S. 922, 939 (1982); Flagg Bros., Inc. v. Brooks, 436 U.S. 149, 158–59 (1978).
51 391 U.S. 308, 317 (1968). In dissent, Justice Black would have ruled that the picketers could not, “under the guise of
exercising First Amendment rights, trespass on . . . private property for the purpose of picketing.” Id. at 329 (Black, J.,
dissenting).
52 Hudgens v. NLRB, 424 U.S. 507, 520 (1976).
53 Id. at 521.
54 Id.
55 Lloyd Corp. v. Tanner, 407 U.S. 551, 569 (1972).
56 Id.
57 Id. at 569–70.
58 Jackson v. Metro. Edison Co., 419 U.S. 345, 352 (1974).
59 See Pub. Utils. Comm’n v. Pollak, 343 U.S. 451, 462 (1952) (holding that such a relationship existed where the
private company operated a public utility that represented a “substantial monopoly” under congressional authority and,

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state regulation”—although government regulation alone is not sufficient to establish the state
action requirement.60 Instead, the inquiry in such a case is “whether there is a sufficiently close
nexus between the State and the challenged action of the regulated entity so that the action of the
latter may be fairly treated as that of the State itself.”61 In a 2001 case, the Supreme Court held
that a state athletic association, while “nominally private,” should be subject to First Amendment
standards because of “the pervasive entwinement of public institutions and public officials in its
composition and workings.”62
Some plaintiffs have argued that various internet companies, including some social media sites,
should be treated as state actors subject to the First Amendment when those companies take down
or restrict access to their speech. Courts have rejected these claims.63 Many of these decisions
have involved relatively terse applications of existing Supreme Court precedent.64 In a few cases,
however, federal district courts have explored the application of these state action cases in more
detail.
First, lower courts have repeatedly held that social media sites do not meet the “exclusive public
function test”65 and are not akin to a company town.66 In so holding, courts have recognized that,
under prevailing Supreme Court case law, private actors are not “state actors subject to First
Amendment scrutiny merely because they hold out and operate their private property as a forum
for expression of diverse points of view.”67 Accordingly, they have held that the mere fact that
social media providers hold their networks open for use by the public is insufficient to make them
more importantly, the company operated “under the regulatory supervision” of a governmental agency, and the
particular action being challenged involved action by that agency).
60 Jackson v. Metro. Edison Co., 419 U.S. 345, 350 (1974); see also Brentwood Acad. v. Tenn. Secondary Sch. Athletic
Ass’n, 531 U.S. 288, 295 (2001).
61 Jackson, 419 U.S. at 351. In Burton v. Wilmington Parking Authority, the Supreme Court held that a private parking
authority had to comply with the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment where a garage that it operated
was “erected and maintained with public funds by an agency of the State to serve a public purpose.” 365 U.S. 715, 724
(1961). In that case, the Court believed that the state had “so far insinuated itself into a position of interdependence
with [the private party] that it must be recognized as a joint participant in the challenged activity.” Id. at 725. Courts
have sometimes described Burton as creating a “symbiotic relationship” test for state action, separate from the “nexus”
standard outlined in Jackson. See, e.g., Jackson, 419 U.S. at 357; Perkins v. Londonderry Basketball Club, 196 F.3d 13,
20 (1st Cir. 1999); Gallagher v. Neil Young Freedom Concert, 49 F.3d 1442, 1447 (10th Cir. 1995); Fitzgerald v.
Mountain Laurel Racing Inc., 607 F.2d 589, 595 (3d Cir. 1979). Cf., e.g., Marie v. Am. Red Cross, 771 F.3d 344, 362
(6th Cir. 2014) (describing “the symbiotic relationship or nexus test” as one of four possible state action inquiries).
62 Brentwood Acad., 531 U.S. at 298.
63 E.g., Jayne v. Google Internet Search Engine Founders, 63 Fed. Appx. 268, 268 (3d Cir. 2008) (per curiam); Green v.
Am. Online (AOL), 318 F.3d 465, 472 (3rd Cir. 2003); Prager Univ. v. Google LLC, No. 17-CV-06064-LHK, 2018
U.S. Dist. LEXIS 51000, at *25–26 (N.D. Cal. Mar. 26, 2018); Nyabwa v. FaceBook, No. 2:17-CV-24, 2018 U.S. Dist.
LEXIS 13981, at *2 (S.D. Tex. Jan. 26, 2018); Quigley v. Yelp, Inc., No. 17-cv-03771-RS, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS
103771, at *4 (N.D. Cal. July 5, 2017); Buza v. Yahoo!, Inc., No. C 11-4422 RS, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 122806, at *2
(N.D. Cal. Oct. 24, 2011); Young v. Facebook, Inc., No. 5:10-cv-03579-JF/PVT, 2010 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 116530, at *9
(N.D. Cal. Oct. 25, 2010); Estavillo v. Sony Comput. Entm’t Am. Inc., No. C-09-03007 RMW, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS
86821, at *3–4 (N.D. Cal. Sept. 22, 2009); Langdon v. Google, Inc., 474 F. Supp. 2d 622, 631–32 (D. Del. 2007); Nat’l
A-1 Advert. v. Network Solutions, Inc., 121 F. Supp. 2d 156, 169 (D.N.H. 2000); Cyber Promotions v. Am. Online,
948 F. Supp. 436, 445 (E.D. Penn. 1996).
64 See, e.g., Green, 318 F.3d at 472; Nyabwa, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 13981, at *2; Forbes v. Facebook, Inc., No. 16CV-404 (AMD), 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19857, at *4–5 (E.D.N.Y. Feb. 18, 2016); Buza, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS
122806, at *2; Langdon, 474 F. Supp. at 631–32.
65 Cyber Promotions, 948 F. Supp. at 441; accord Quigley, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 103771, at *4.
66 See Prager Univ., 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 51000, at *18; Estavillo, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 86821, at *4.
67 Prager Univ., 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 51000, at *24; accord Estavillo, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 86821, at *5.

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subject to the First Amendment.68 Courts have rejected plaintiffs’ efforts to characterize the
provision of a public forum69 or “the dissemination of news and fostering of debate”70 as public
functions that were traditionally and exclusively performed by the government.
For example, in Cyber Promotions v. American Online (AOL), a district court rejected the
argument that “by providing Internet e-mail and acting as the sole conduit to its members’
Internet e-mail boxes, AOL has opened up that part of its network [to the public] and as such, has
sufficiently devoted this domain for public use.”71 The court said that “[a]lthough AOL has
technically opened its e-mail system to the public by connecting with the Internet, AOL has not
opened its property to the public by performing any municipal power or essential public service
and, therefore, does not stand in the shoes of the State.”72 The challengers in that case, a company
that had been blocked from sending unsolicited advertisements via email, also argued that AOL
performed an exclusive public function because the company had “no alternative avenues of
communication . . . to send its e-mail to AOL members.”73 The judge rejected this claim as well,
concluding that the company did have alternative avenues to send its advertising to AOL
members, including other places on the internet as well as “non-Internet avenues.”74 Similarly, in
Prager University v. Google LLC, a district court held that by operating YouTube, “a ‘videosharing website,’” and then restricting access to some videos, Google had not “somehow engaged
in one of the ‘very few’ functions that were traditionally ‘exclusively reserved to the State.’”75
Trial courts have also held that social networks have failed to meet the joint participation, nexus,
and entwinement tests for state action.76 In Cyber Promotions, the court held that there was no
joint participation because the government was not involved in AOL’s challenged decision.77
Another trial court, in Quigley v. Yelp, Inc., similarly concluded joint participation did not exist
68 See Prager Univ., 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 51000, at *23–24; Quigley, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 103771, at *4;

Estavillo, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 86821, at *4; Cyber Promotions, 948 F. Supp. at 442.
69 E.g., Prager Univ., 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 51000, at *26 (“Defendants do not appear to be at all like, for example, a
private corporation . . . that has been given control over a previously public sidewalk or park . . . .”).
70 Quigley, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 103771, at *4 (“The dissemination of news and fostering of debate cannot be said to
have been traditionally the exclusive prerogative of the government.”).
71 948 F. Supp. at 442 (internal quotation mark omitted).
72 Id. (emphasis added).
73 Id. at 442–43.
74 Id. at 443.
75 Prager Univ. v. Google LLC, No. 17-CV-06064-LHK, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 51000, at *16 (N.D. Cal. Mar. 26,
2018) (citation omitted) (quoting Flagg Bros., Inc. v. Brooks, 436 U.S. 149, 158 (1978)).
76 Quigley, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 103771, at *5–7; Estavillo v. Sony Comput. Entm’t Am. Inc., No. C-09-03007
RMW, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 86821, at *5 (N.D. Cal. Sept. 22, 2009); Cyber Promotions, 948 F. Supp. at 444–45. See
also Fehrenbach v. Zeldin, No. 17-CV-5282, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 132992, at *7–8 (E.D.N.Y. Aug. 6, 2018) (“[N]o
reasonable person could infer from the pleading that the state ‘encouraged’ or ‘coerced’ the Facebook defendants to
enable users to delete posts or to ‘look away’ if and when they do.”). Cf. Daphne Keller, Who Do You Sue?, HOOVER
INST., Aegis Series Paper No. 1902, at 3 (2019) (“Governments influence platforms’ content removal decisions in a
number of ways.”). However, lower courts have sometimes concluded that the social media profiles of government
agencies or government officials may be public fora in which the First Amendment applies, if they have been opened to
the public. See, e .g., Davison v. Randall, 912 F.3d 666, 682–84 (4th Cir. 2019); Knight First Amendment Inst. v.
Trump, 302 F. Supp. 3d 541, (S.D.N.Y. 2018), appeal filed, No. 18-1691 (2d Cir. June 5, 2018); but see, e.g., Hargis v.
Bevin, No. 3:17-cv-00060-GFVT, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 54428, at *15 (E.D. Ky. Mar. 30, 2018) (holding that the
First Amendment’s forum doctrine does not apply because state governor’s “use of privately owned Facebook Page and
Twitter pages is personal speech,” and he was “speaking on his own behalf”).
77 948 F. Supp. at 444. The court said that the court’s involvement alone did not implicate the First Amendment. Id. at
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between various social media sites and the government where the plaintiff failed to show that the
state participated in the specific actions challenged in the lawsuit.78 That court also rejected an
argument that there was “a pervasive entwinement between defendants and the government
because the government maintains accounts on the defendants’ websites, and uses their websites
to communicate with citizens.”79 Even assuming that this allegation was true, the court held that
this was not “the sort of entwinement that . . . converts a private party’s actions to state action,”80
observing that the government did not participate “in the operation or management of defendants’
websites,” but only used these sites “in the same manner as other users.”81
Accordingly, lower courts have uniformly concluded that the First Amendment does not prevent
social media providers from restricting users’ ability to post content on their networks. However,
the Supreme Court has not yet weighed in on this subject, and as will be discussed in more detail
below,82 a number of legal commentators have argued that, notwithstanding these trial court
decisions, courts should view social media platforms as equivalent to state actors, at least when
they perform certain functions.

Section 230 of the CDA
A constitutional injury is not the only type of harm that a social media user might suffer as a
result of a social network’s decisions about user content, and litigants have brought a wide variety
of claims challenging these sorts of decisions. For example, plaintiffs have argued that sites’
decisions to remove or restrict access to their content constituted unfair competition under the
Lanham Act,83 discrimination under the Civil Rights Act of 1964,84 tortious interference with
contractual relationships,85 fraud,86 and breach of contract.87 Other plaintiffs have attempted to
hold online platforms liable for harm stemming from the sites’ decisions not to remove content,

78 Quigley, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 103771, at *5–6.
79 Id. at *6.
80 Id.
81 Id. at *7. See also Estavillo, 2009 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 86821, at *5 (noting that Sony’s Playstation 3 network “was not

created to further government objectives,” that the government had no authority in the governing of the network, and
that the government did not “encourag[e] Sony to create the Network”).
82 See infra “Social Media Sites as Company Towns.”
83 e-ventures Worldwide, LLC v. Google, Inc., No. 2:14-cv-646-FtM-PAM-CM, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 88650, at *4
(M.D. Fla. Feb. 8, 2017); Spy Phone Labs LLC v. Google Inc., No. 15-cv-03756-KAW, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS
143530, at *8 (N.D. Cal. Oct. 14, 2016).
84 Sikhs for Justice “SJF”, Inc., v. Facebook, Inc., 144 F. Supp. 3d 1088, 1090 (N.D. Cal. 2015), aff’d, 697 Fed. Appx.
526, 526 (9th Cir. 2017).
85 Zango, Inc. v. Kaspersky Lab, Inc., 568 F.3d 1169, 1172 (9th Cir. 2009); e-ventures Worldwide, LLC, 2017 U.S.
Dist. LEXIS 88650, at *4; Spy Phone Labs LLC, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 143530, at *8; Search King, Inc. v. Google
Tech., Inc., No. CIV-02-1457-M, 2003 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 27193, at *4 (W.D. Okla. May 27, 2003); cf. e360Insight,
LLC v. Comcast Corp., 546 F. Supp. 2d 605, 607 (N.D. Ill. 2008) (tortious interference with prospective economic
advantage).
86 Langdon v. Google, Inc., 474 F. Supp. 2d 622, 626 (D. Del. 2007). Plaintiffs suing social media companies have also
alleged state law causes of action for deceptive business and trade practices, e-ventures Worldwide, LLC, 2017 U.S.
Dist. LEXIS 88650, at *4; e360Insight, LLC, 546 F. Supp. 2d at 607; Langdon, 474 F. Supp. 2d at 626, and breaches of
covenants of good faith and fair dealing, Darnaa, LLC v. Google, Inc., No. 15-cv-03221-RMW, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS
152126, at *8 (N.D. Cal. Nov. 2, 2016); Spy Phone Labs LLC, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 143530, at *8; Sikhs for Justice,
144 F. Supp. 3d at 1091.
87 Sikhs for Justice, 144 F. Supp. 3d at 1091; Smith v. Trusted Universal Standards in Elec. Transactions, Inc., No. 094567, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 26757, at *6 (D.N.J. Mar. 15 2011); Langdon, 474 F. Supp. 2d at 626.

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claiming, for example, that by publishing certain content, the sites committed defamation88 or
negligence,89 or violated state securities law.90 However, many of these suits are barred by the
broad grant of immunity created by the CDA’s Section 230.91
47 U.S.C. § 230(c)
(1) TREATMENT OF PUBLISHER OR SPEAKER.—No provider or user of an interactive computer
service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information
content provider.
(2) CIVIL LIABILITY.—No provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be held liable on
account of—
(A) any action voluntarily taken in good faith to restrict access to or availability of
material that the provider or user considers to be obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy,
excessively violent, harassing, or otherwise objectionable, whether or not such
material is constitutionally protected; or
(B) any action taken to enable or make available to information content providers or
others the technical means to restrict access to material described in paragraph (1).92

Section 230, as seen in the text box above, distinguishes between “interactive computer services”
and “information content providers.”93 An interactive computer service is “any information
service, system, or access software provider that provides or enables computer access by multiple
users to a computer server.”94 Courts have considered online platforms such as Facebook,95
Twitter,96 and Craigslist97 to be “interactive computer service” providers.98 An information
content provider is “any person or entity that is responsible, in whole or in part, for the creation or

Barnes v. Yahoo!, Inc., 570 F.3d 1096, 1101 (9th Cir. 2009) (“The cause of action most frequently associated with
. . . section 230 is defamation.”); see, e.g., Ricci v. Teamsters Union Local 456, 781 F.3d 25, 27 (2d Cir. 2015).
89 E.g., Klayman v. Zuckerberg, 753 F.3d 1354, 1359 (D.C. Cir. 2014) (negligence and assault); Barnes, 570 F.3d at
1102-03 (negligent undertaking).
90 Universal Commc’n Sys., Inc. v. Lycos, Inc., 478 F.3d 413, 422 (1st Cir. 2007).
91 47 U.S.C. § 230. See also Universal Commc’n Sys., Inc., 478 F.3d at 418 (“The other courts that have addressed
these issues have generally interpreted Section 230 immunity broadly . . .”); id. at 419 (“[W]e too find that Section 230
immunity should be broadly construed.”). For example, relying on Section 230, courts have dismissed claims alleging
that various social media platforms have supported terrorist organizations by allowing terrorists to use their sites. See
Cohen v. Facebook, Inc., 252 F. Supp. 3d 140, 145 (E.D.N.Y. 2017); Fields v. Twitter, Inc., 217 F. Supp. 3d 1116,
1118 (N.D. Cal. 2016), aff’d on other grounds, 881 F.3d 739, 750 (9th Cir. 2018).
92 Courts have read 47 U.S.C. § 230(c)(2)(B)’s reference to “paragraph (1)” to mean § 230(c)(2)(A). E.g. Zango, Inc. v.
Kaspersky Lab, Inc., 568 F.3d 1169, 1173 n.5 (9th Cir. 2009) (“We take it that the reference to the ‘material described
in paragraph (1)’ is a typographical error, and that instead the reference should be to paragraph (A), i.e., § 230(c)(2)(A).
Paragraph (1) pertains to the treatment of a publisher or speaker and has nothing to do with ‘material,’ whereas
subparagraph (A) pertains to and describes material.”) (citation omitted).
93 47 U.S.C. § 230(f).
94 Id. § 230(f)(2).
95 E.g., Klayman v. Zuckerberg, 753 F.3d 1354, 1357 (D.C. Cir. 2014).
96 E.g., Fields v. Twitter, 217 F. Supp. 3d 1116, 1121 (N.D. Cal. 2016).
97 E.g., Chicago Lawyers’ Comm. for Civil Rights under Law, Inc. v. Craigslist, Inc., 519 F.3d 666, 671 (7th Cir.
2008).
98 See also Universal Commc’n Sys., Inc. v. Lycos, Inc., 478 F.3d 413, 419 (1st Cir. 2007) (“Providing access to the
Internet is . . . not the only way to be an interactive computer service provider.”).
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development of information provided through the Internet or any other interactive computer
service.”99
Section 230 contains two primary provisions creating immunity from liability. First, Section
230(c)(1) specifies that interactive service providers and users may not “be treated as the
publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider.”100
Second, Section 230(c)(2) states that interactive service providers and users may not be held
liable for voluntarily acting in good faith to restrict access to objectionable material.101 Section
230 preempts state civil lawsuits and state criminal prosecutions to the extent that they are
“inconsistent” with Section 230.102 It also bars certain federal civil lawsuits,103 but, significantly,
not federal criminal prosecutions.104 Section 230(e) outlines a few exemptions: for example,
Section 230 immunity will not apply in a suit “pertaining to intellectual property”105 or in claims
alleging violations of certain sex trafficking laws.106

Section 230(c)(1)
Section 230, and particularly Section 230(c)(1), distinguishes those who create content from those
who provide access to that content, providing immunity to the latter group.107 An entity may be
both an “interactive computer service” provider and an “information content provider,” but the
critical inquiry for applying Section 230(c)(1) is whether, with respect to the particular actions
alleged to create liability, the service provider developed the underlying content.108
Courts have held that an interactive computer service provider may be subject to suit if it is also
acting as a content provider.109 Frequently, the application of Section 230(c)(1) immunity turns
99 47 U.S.C. § 230(f)(3).
100 Id. § 230(c)(1).
101 Id. § 230(c)(2).

47 U.S.C. § 230(e)(3) preempts contrary state law, providing that “[n]o cause of action may be brought and no
liability may be imposed under any State or local law that is inconsistent with this section.” See also, e.g., Doe v. GTE
Corp., 347 F.3d 655, 658 (7th Cir. 2003) (“These provisions preempt contrary state law.”); Backpage.com, LLC v.
Cooper, 939 F. Supp. 2d 805, 823 (M.D. Tenn. 2013) (concluding that a state law imposing criminal liability “is likely
expressly preempted by” the CDA).
103 See, e.g., Fair Hous. Council v. Roommates.com, LLC, 521 F.3d 1157, 1174–75 (9th Cir. 2008).
104 47 U.S.C. § 230(e)(1) provides that Section 230 shall not “be construed to impair the enforcement of . . . any . . .
Federal criminal statute.”
105 Id. § 230(e)(2) (“Nothing in this section shall be construed to limit or expand any law pertaining to intellectual
property.”); see, e.g., Gucci Am., Inc. v. Hall & Assocs., 135 F. Supp. 2d 409, 413 (S.D.N.Y. 2001) (holding that
providing immunity from a suit alleging a violation of intellectual property laws “would ‘limit’ the laws pertaining to
intellectual property in contravention of § 230(e)(2)”).
106 See 47 U.S.C. § 230(e)(5).
107 See id. § 230(f). See also, e.g., Ricci v. Teamsters Union Local 456, 781 F.3d 25, 28 (2d Cir. 2015) (“In short, a
plaintiff defamed on the internet can sue the original speaker, but typically ‘cannot sue the messenger.’” (quoting
Chicago Lawyers’ Comm. for Civil Rights under Law, Inc. v. Craigslist, Inc., 519 F.3d 666, 672 (7th Cir. 2008))).
Some have noted, however, that 47 U.S.C. § 230(c)(1) does not itself use the word “immunity,” or any comparable
legal terms. See Chicago Lawyers’ Comm. for Civil Rights under Law, Inc., 519 F.3d at 669; Doe v. GTE Corp., 347
F.3d 655, 660–61 (7th Cir. 2003). Compare Barnes v. Yahoo!, Inc., 570 F.3d 1096, 1100–01 (9th Cir. 2009)
(explaining that 47 U.S.C. § 230(c)(1) alone does not create immunity from suit, but creates protection from liability
when viewed in conjunction with 47 U.S.C. § 230(e)(3)), with Zeran v. Am. Online, Inc., 129 F.3d 327, 330 (4th Cir.
1997) (“By its plain language, [47 U.S.C. § 230(c)(1)] creates a federal immunity to any cause of action that would
make service providers liable for information originating with a third-party user of the service.”).
108 See, e.g., Fair Hous. Council v. Roommates.com, LLC, 521 F.3d 1157, 1174 (9th Cir. 2008).
109 Id. at 1162-63. Some circuits have described a three-part test to determine whether an entity posting information is
102

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not on the type of suit that is being brought—that is, for example, whether it is a suit for libel or
for breach of contract110—but on whether the facts establish that the interactive computer service
provider was merely a publisher of another’s content,111 or whether the service provider itself
created or developed content.112 Courts have generally held that a site’s ability to control the
content posted on its website does not, in and of itself, transform an interactive computer service
into an internet content provider.113 As one court said, “a website does not create or develop
content when it merely provides a neutral means by which third parties can post information of
their own independent choosing online.”114 A service provider may still be immune from suit
under Section 230(c)(1) even if it makes small editorial changes to that content.115
Conversely, a “website operator” can be liable for “content that it creates itself, or is ‘responsible,
in whole or in part’ for creating or developing.”116 Even if the service provider does not itself
solely create the content, Section 230 immunity might be unavailable if the service provider
“augment[s] the content.”117 For example, one state court held that, even assuming that Snapchat
was a provider of interactive computer services, a plaintiff’s claim against the company could
proceed where the alleged harm was caused by a “filter,” or a graphic overlay on a user’s photo,
that was created by Snapchat itself.118 Because the plaintiff sought “to hold Snapchat liable for its
own conduct,” the court held that “CDA immunity does not apply.”119
Some courts have applied a “material contribution test,”120 asking whether a service provider
“materially contribute[d] to the illegality” of the disputed content,121 or “in some way specifically
encourage[d] development of what is offensive about the content.”122 Thus, for example, a federal
entitled to immunity: Section 230 “protects from liability (1) a provider or user of an interactive computer service
(2) whom a plaintiff seeks to treat . . . as a publisher or speaker (3) of information provided by another information
content provider.” Barnes, 570 F.3d at 1100–01. Accord Jones v. Dirty World Entm’t Recordings, LLC, 755 F.3d 398,
409 (6th Cir. 2014); Klayman v. Zuckerberg, 753 F.3d 1354, 1357 (D.C. Cir. 2014); Fed. Trade Comm’n v.
Accusearch, Inc., 570 F.3d 1187, 1196 (10th Cir. 2009).
110 See, e.g., Barnes, 570 F.3d at 1102–03 (“[W]hat matters is not the name of the cause of action . . . [but] whether the
cause of action inherently requires the court to treat the defendant as the ‘publisher or speaker’ of content provided by
another.”). Cf., e.g., Doe v. Internet Brands, Inc., 824 F.3d 846, 851, 853 (9th Cir. 2016) (concluding Section 230 did
not bar plaintiff’s claim because the type of tort duty allegedly breached was not within the scope of the statute).
111 See 47 U.S.C. § 230(f)(2).
112 See Fed. Trade Comm’n v. LeadClick Media, LLC, 838 F.3d 158, 174, 176 (2d Cir. 2016). See also Universal
Commc’n Sys., Inc. v. Lycos, Inc., 478 F.3d 413, 418 (1st Cir. 2007) (“[A]n interactive computer service provider
remains liable for its own speech.”).
113 See, e.g., Klayman, 753 F.3d at 1358.
114 Id.
115 See Batzel v. Smith, 333 F.3d 1018, 1031 (9th Cir. 2003); Ben Ezra, Weinstein, & Co. v. Am. Online, Inc., 206 F.3d
980, 985 (10th Cir. 2000). See also Doe v. Friendfinder Network, Inc., 540 F. Supp. 2d 288, 299 (D.N.H. 2008) (“[A]
service provider’s privilege as a ‘publisher’ under the Act protects more than the mere repetition of data obtained from
another source, but extends to the provider’s ‘inherent decisions about how to treat postings generally.’”) (quoting
Universal Commc’n Sys., Inc., 478 F.3d at 422).
116 Fair Hous. Council v. Roommates.com, LLC, 521 F.3d 1157, 1170, 1162 (9th Cir. 2008) (quoting 47 U.S.C.
§ 230(f)(3)).
117 Id. at 1167–68.
118 Maynard v. Snapchat, Inc., 816 S.E.2d 77, 79–81 (Ga. Ct. App. 2018).
119 Id. at 81.
120 Jones v. Dirty World Entm’t Recordings, LLC, 755 F.3d 398, 413 (6th Cir. 2014).
121 Id. at 415. Accord, e.g., Fair Hous. Council, 521 F.3d at 1168.
122 Fed. Trade Comm’n v. Accusearch, Inc., 570 F.3d 1187, 1199 (10th Cir. 2009). Cf. Jones, 755 F.3d at 414–15
(rejecting “an encouragement theory of ‘development’” that would impose liability for intentionally encouraging

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appellate court concluded that Roommates.com, a site that “match[ed] people renting out spare
rooms with people looking for a place to live,” was not wholly immune from claims that it had
violated laws prohibiting housing discrimination.123 The court concluded that Roommates.com
could be subject to suit for discrimination because the site required all users to respond to
questions about their sex, family status, and sexual orientation by selecting among preset answers
to those questions, and to state their “preferences in roommates with respect to the same three
criteria.”124 Accordingly, in the court’s view, as to these questions and answers, Roommates.com
was “more than a passive transmitter of information provided by others; it becomes the developer,
at least in part, of that information.”125 Each user’s personal page was “a collaborative effort
between [Roommates.com] and the subscriber.”126 This rendered it the “‘information content
provider’ as to the questions”127 and the answers.128

Section 230(c)(2)
Although courts frequently consider the immunity in Section 230(c)(1) and Section 230(c)(2)
together, as one “Section 230” shield,129 the text of these provisions suggests they cover distinct
circumstances. Section 230(c)(1) applies more broadly, to any suit in which the plaintiff seeks to
hold the provider liable as the publisher of another’s information.130 By contrast, Section
230(c)(2) applies only to good-faith, voluntary actions by a provider—or a third party assisting
providers—to restrict access to “obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy, excessively violent, harassing,
or otherwise objectionable” content.131
There is an important difference in the language of the two provisions: as noted, Section
230(c)(2) requires a service provider to act in good faith for immunity to apply; Section 230(c)(1)
does not contain a similar requirement.132 While courts frequently apply Section 230 to dismiss
lawsuits premised on a service provider’s decision to remove or restrict access to another’s
content,133 they are somewhat less likely to dismiss lawsuits where the good-faith requirement is
involved, because a plaintiff who properly pleads and presents evidence regarding a lack of good
certain types of third-party postings).
123 Fair Hous. Council, 521 F.3d at 1161, 1175.
124 Id. at 1161.
125 Id.
126 Id. at 1167.
127 Id. at 1164 (quoting 47 U.S.C. § 230(f)(3)).
128 Id. at 1166.
129 See, e.g., Zeran v. Am. Online, Inc., 129 F.3d 327, 330 (4th Cir. 1997). See also Eric Goldman, MySpace Quietly
Won Goofy 230 Ruling in September–Riggs v. MySpace, TECH. & MKTG. LAW BLOG (Nov. 30, 2009),
https://bit.ly/2S3CMrW (noting that courts have “collapsed the two provisions together . . . with surprising regularity”)
[hereinafter Goldman, Riggs v. MySpace].
130 47 U.S.C. § 230(c)(1); Klayman v. Zuckerberg, 753 F.3d 1354, 1357 (D.C. Cir. 2014).
131 47 U.S.C. § 230(c)(2).
132 See id. § 230(c).
133 Zango, Inc. v. Kaspersky Lab, Inc., 568 F.3d 1169, 1174 (9th Cir. 2009); Mezey v. Twitter, Inc., No. 1:18-cv21069-KMM, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 121775, at *3 (S.D. Fla. July 19, 2018); Darnaa, LLC v. Google, Inc., No. 15-cv03221-RMW, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 152126, at *23 (N.D. Cal. Nov. 2, 2016); Sikhs for Justice “SJF”, Inc., v.
Facebook, Inc., 144 F. Supp. 3d 1088, 1095 (N.D. Cal. 2015), aff’d, 697 Fed. Appx. 526, 526 (9th Cir. 2017); Smith v.
Trusted Universal Standards in Elec. Transactions, Inc., No. 09-4567, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 26757, at *16–24 (D.N.J.
Mar. 15 2011); Riggs v. MySpace, No. CV 09-03073-GHK (CTx), 2009 WL 10671689, at *3 (C.D. Cal. Sept. 17,
2009), aff’d, 444 Fed. Appx. 986, 987 (9th Cir. 2011); e360Insight, LLC v. Comcast Corp., 546 F. Supp. 2d 605, 609
(N.D. Ill. 2008); Langdon v. Google, Inc., 474 F. Supp. 2d 622, 631 (D. Del. 2007).

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faith creates a question of fact that may prevent the court from summarily dismissing the case.134
One trial court concluded that there was a question as to Google’s good faith where the plaintiff
alleged that Google was “selectively enforcing” a stated policy, and that the policy itself was
“entirely pretextual.”135 Another trial court concluded that a company had sufficiently alleged bad
faith where it argued that Google had “falsely accused” it of violating Google’s stated policy, and
that Google “sought to punish [the company] because it” refused to allow Google to embed
advertising in the company’s video.136
One view is that Section 230(c)(2) applies when a provider “does filter out offensive material,”
while Section 230(c)(1) applies when providers “refrain from filtering or censoring the
information on their sites.”137 At least one federal trial judge has noted that interpreting Section
230(c)(1) to bar suits in which a plaintiff seeks to hold a service provider liable for removing the
plaintiff’s own content would “swallow[] the more specific immunity in (c)(2).”138 The court
explained that:
Subsection (c)(2) immunizes only an interactive computer service’s “actions taken in good
faith.” If the publisher’s motives are irrelevant and always immunized by (c)(1), then (c)(2)
is unnecessary. The Court is unwilling to read the statute in a way that renders the goodfaith requirement superfluous. 139

Lawsuits directly challenging a website’s decision to restrict or remove content, rather than to
publish it, often do invoke Section 230(c)(2).140 Thus, courts have considered the application of
Section 230(c)(2), rather than Section 230(c)(1), in lawsuits involving the removal of an app from
the Google Play Store,141 the removal of websites from Google’s search results,142 the removal of
videos from YouTube,143 and decisions to filter certain IP addresses or email addresses.144
However, this distinction between filtering content and publishing content does not always play

134

See, e.g., e-ventures Worldwide, LLC v. Google, Inc., No. 2:14-cv-646-FtM-PAM-CM, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS
88650, at *4 (M.D. Fla. Feb. 8, 2017); Darnaa, LLC, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 152126, at *25; Spy Phone Labs LLC v.
Google Inc., No. 15-cv-03756-KAW, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 143530, at *26 (N.D. Cal. Oct. 14, 2016); Smith, 2011
U.S. Dist. LEXIS 26757, at *25–26. But see, e.g., Zango, Inc., 568 F.3d at 1174 (applying 47 U.S.C. § 230(c)(2) to
dismiss claim); Smith, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 26757, at *16–24 (same); e360Insight, LLC, 546 F. Supp. 2d at 609
(same); Langdon, 474 F. Supp. 2d at 631 (same).
135 Spy Phone Labs LLC, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 143530, at *26.
136 Darnaa, LLC, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 152126, at *25–26.
137 Doe v. GTE Corp., 347 F.3d 655, 659 (7th Cir. 2003).
138 e-ventures Worldwide, LLC, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 88650, at *9.
139 Id.
140 See, e.g., Smith v. Trusted Universal Standards in Elec. Transactions, Inc., No. 09-4567, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS
26757, at *16–24 (D.N.J. Mar. 15 2011); e360Insight, LLC v. Comcast Corp., 546 F. Supp. 2d 605, 607 (N.D. Ill.
2008); Langdon v. Google, Inc., 474 F. Supp. 2d 622, 630 (D. Del. 2007). Compare Green v. Am. Online (AOL), 318
F.3d 465, 470 (3rd Cir. 2003) (holding that Section 230(c)(1) immunity applies to AOL’s “alleged negligent failure to
properly police its network for content transmitted by its users”), with id. at 473 (holding that Section 230(c)(2)
immunity applies to AOL’s allegedly unlawful conduct preventing users from sending objectionable emails).
141 Spy Phone Labs LLC v. Google Inc., No. 15-cv-03756-KAW, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 143530, at *25–26 (N.D. Cal.
Oct. 14, 2016).
142 e-ventures Worldwide, LLC, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 88650, at *4.
143 Darnaa, LLC v. Google, Inc., No. 15-cv-03221-RMW, 2016 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 152126, at *25 (N.D. Cal. Nov. 2,
2016).
144 Zango, Inc. v. Kaspersky Lab, Inc., 568 F.3d 1169, 1174 (9th Cir. 2009); Smith, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 26757, at
*16–26.

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out so neatly in the courts, and other decisions have applied Section 230(c)(1) immunity to bar
suits that are grounded in an interactive service provider’s decision to restrict content.145
There is one additional circumstance under which Section 230(c)(2) immunity, as opposed to
Section 230(c)(1) immunity, may apply. Section 230(c)(2)(B) protects those providers or users of
computer services who “enable or make available to information content providers or others
technical means to restrict access to” objectionable material.146 This provision may protect, for
example, “providers of programs that filter adware and malware.”147 This immunity may apply
even where an interactive computer service is not a publisher entitled to immunity under Section
230(c)(1).148
Thus, as a whole, Section 230 offers broad immunity to “interactive computer service” providers
when a litigant seeks to hold them liable for publishing, or not publishing, a user’s content.149
Section 230(c)(1) provides immunity from any lawsuit that seeks to hold a service provider liable
for publishing information that was created by an “information content provider,” effectively
protecting social media sites from liability for hosting content.150 And Section 230(c)(2) provides
immunity for sites that take good faith action to restrict access to content that the provider or
users deem “objectionable.”151 Consequently, to the extent that private litigants or state
governments would have been able to hold social media companies liable under existing law for
their decisions regarding presenting or restricting access to user content, those suits have largely
been barred under Section 230.152

First Amendment Limits on Government Regulation
of Social Media Content
As discussed above, courts have often dismissed lawsuits attempting to hold social media
providers liable for regulating users’ content, whether because the court concludes that the First
Amendment does not apply to the actions of these private actors or because the court holds that
Section 230(c)(2) of the CDA bars the lawsuit. Additionally, Section 230(c)(1) may bar lawsuits
145 See, e.g., Mezey v. Twitter, Inc., No. 1:18-cv-21069-KMM, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 121775, at *2–3 (S.D. Fla. July

19, 2018); Sikhs for Justice Inc. v. Facebook, Inc., 144 F. Supp. 3d 1088, 1096 (N.D. Cal. 2015), aff’d, 697 Fed. Appx.
526, 526 (9th Cir. 2017); Riggs v. MySpace, No. CV 09-03073-GHK (CTx), 2009 WL 10671689, at *3 (C.D. Cal.
Sept. 17, 2009), aff’d, 444 Fed. Appx. 986, 987 (9th Cir. 2011). And perhaps somewhat confusingly, some cases
applying Section 230(c)(2) immunity cite, as part of their justification, cases that describe publisher immunity under
Section 230(c)(1). See, e.g., Langdon v. Google, Inc., 474 F. Supp. 2d 622, 631 (D. Del. 2007).
146 47 U.S.C. § 230(c)(2)(B).
147 Zango, Inc. v. Kaspersky Lab, Inc., 568 F.3d 1169, 1174 (9th Cir. 2009). See generally, e.g., Russell A. Miller, The
Legal Fate of Internet Ad-Blocking, 24 B.U. J. SCI. & TECH. L. 301, 358–60 (2018). Section 230(c)(2)(B) has also been
applied to entities like Facebook. Fehrenbach v. Zeldin, No. 17-CV-5282, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 132992, at *14
(E.D.N.Y. Aug. 6, 2018). By contrast, one court concluded that Yahoo! was not entitled to immunity under Section
230(c)(2)(B) where it “did not engage in any form of content analysis of the subject text to identify material that was
offensive or harmful.” Sherman v. Yahoo! Inc., 997 F. Supp. 2d 1129, 1138 (S.D. Cal. 2014).
148 See, e.g., Smith v. Trusted Universal Standards in Elec. Transactions, Inc., No. 09-4567, 2011 U.S. Dist. LEXIS
26757, at *15 (D.N.J. Mar. 15 2011).
149 47 U.S.C. § 230(c).
150 Id. § 230(c)(1).
151 Id. § 230(c)(2).
152 See, e.g., Klayman v. Zuckerberg, 753 F.3d 1354, 1358–59 (D.C. Cir. 2014) (discussing scope of immunity
provided by Section 230).

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that seek to hold these platforms liable because of their decisions to publish certain content.
Particularly because of Section 230, there are few, if any, federal or state laws that expressly
govern social media sites’ decisions about whether and how to present users’ content.
Consequently, users’ ability to post speech on social media platforms is governed primarily by the
private moderation policies created by these companies.153
In response to broader public policy concerns about how social media entities are policing user
content, some commentators and legislators have proposed federal regulation both to protect
users’ ability to speak freely on those platforms154 and to require these platforms to take down,
deemphasize, or clarify certain content.155 While the First Amendment, as discussed above, may
not apply in disputes between private parties,156 a federal law regulating internet content decisions
would likely qualify as state action sufficient to implicate the First Amendment.157 After all, the
First Amendment provides that “Congress shall make no law . . . abridging the freedom of
speech.”158
Once state action is established, the next consideration is to what extent the First Amendment
protects social media platforms’ content moderation decisions. Stated another way, the relevant
question is when social media providers can assert that government regulation infringes on their
own speech. Perhaps most obviously, if a social media site posts content that it has created itself,
the site may raise First Amendment objections to a law expressly regulating that speech.159 Social
media providers may also argue that they are exercising protected speech rights when they are
choosing whether to publish content that was originally created by users and when they make
decisions about how to present that content.160 However, the fact that a law affects speech
153 See, e.g., Klonick, supra note 32, at 1630–58 (describing these content moderation policies).
154 See, e.g., H.R. 492, 116th Cong. (2019) (amending the CDA to provide that “an owner or operator of a social

media service . . . shall be treated as a publisher or speaker of such content” based on certain ways of displaying “usergenerated content”); H.R. 4682, 115th Cong. (2017) (amending the CDA to provide that a person providing “broadband
internet access service . . . may not block lawful content”); David L. Hudson, Jr., In the Age of Social Media, Expand
the Reach of the First Amendment, AM. BAR ASS’N, https://bit.ly/2V7eCP3 (last visited Mar. 27, 2019); see also supra
note 26.
155 See, e.g., H.R. 1, § 4207(b)(1), 116th Cong. (2019) (requiring specified disclosures for certain online political
advertisements); Press Release, Rep. Adam Schiff, Schiff Sends Letter to Google, Facebook Regarding Anti-Vaccine
Misinformation (Feb. 14, 2019), https://bit.ly/2XOQqmX; see also supra note 20.
156 Cf., e.g., Henry H. Perritt, Jr., Tort Liability, The First Amendment, and Equal Access to Electronic Networks, 5
HARV. J.L. & TECH. 65, 128 (1992) (“The First Amendment is not likely to be an effective sword for information
service providers seeking to use it as an affirmative source of equal access rights. Only if the FCC or the Congress or
another governmental entity imposes specific affirmative requirements on private information service providers is the
conduct of the service provider likely to be sufficient state action to implicate the First Amendment.”).
157 See, e.g., Reno v. ACLU, 521 U.S. 844, 882 (1997) (striking down as unconstitutional under the First Amendment
provisions of the CDA that prohibited the transmission of indecent or patently offensive messages to minors); cf., e.g.,
Janus v. Am. Fed’n of State, Cty., and Mun. Emps., Council 31, 138 S. Ct. 2448, 2479 n.24 (2018) (questioning
whether a federal statute “allowing, but not requiring” private third parties to take certain actions is “sufficient to
establish governmental action” under the First Amendment).
158 U.S. CONST. amend. I (emphasis added).
159 Cf., e.g., U.S. Telecom Ass’n v. FCC, 855 F.3d 381, 382 (D.C. Cir. 2017) (Kavanaugh, J., dissenting from denial of
rehearing en banc) (noting that FCC’s net neutrality rule “reflects a fear that the real threat to free speech today comes
from private entities such as Internet service providers,” but rejecting this argument because “the First Amendment is a
restraint on the Government and protects private editors and speakers from Government regulation”); U.S. Telecom
Ass’n v. FCC, 825 F.3d 674, 741–42 (D.C. Cir. 2016) (noting that “insofar as a[n internet] broadband provider might
offer its own content—such as a news or weather site—separate from its internet access service, the provider would
receive the same protection under the First Amendment as other producers of internet content”).
160 E.g., Stuart Minor Benjamin, Determining What “The Freedom of Speech” Encompasses, 60 DUKE L.J. 1673, 1680
(2011). Cf., e.g., Search King, Inc. v. Google Tech., Inc., No. CIV-02-1457-M, 2003 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 27193, at *12

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protected by the First Amendment does not necessarily mean that it is unconstitutional. As
explained below, the First Amendment allows some regulation of speech and does not prohibit
regulation of conduct.

Background Principles: First Amendment Protections Online
While the First Amendment generally protects the “freedom of speech,”161 its protections do not
apply in the same way in all cases. Not every government regulation affecting content posted on
social media sites would be analyzed in the same way. A court’s analysis would depend on a
number of factors.
First, a court would inquire into the nature of the precise action being regulated, including
whether it is properly characterized as speech or conduct.162 Laws that target conduct and only
incidentally burden speech may be permissible.163 But “speech” is not always easy to identify.
Lower courts have held that computer code and programs may be entitled to First Amendment
protection, so long as they communicate “information comprehensible to human beings.”164
Courts have also concluded that in some circumstances, domain names might constitute protected
speech.165 And more generally, the Supreme Court has said that “inherently expressive” conduct
can receive First Amendment protections.166
If a law does regulate speech, a court would consider the type of speech being regulated to
determine how closely to scrutinize the regulation. For example, a court may ask whether that
speech is commercial167 and, as such, deserving of less protection under the First Amendment.168
(W.D. Okla. May 27, 2003) (holding that Google’s PageRanks “are constitutionally protected opinions”).
161 U.S. CONST. amend. I.
162 See Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coal., 535 U.S, 234, 253 (2002) (“[T]he Court’s First Amendment cases draw vital
distinctions between words and deeds, between ideas and conduct.”); see also, e.g., Junger v. Daley, 209 F.3d 481,
484–85 (6th Cir. 2000) (noting that encryption source code “has both an expressive feature and a functional feature,”
but ultimately concluding that “[b]ecause computer source code is an expressive means for the exchange of information
and ideas about computer programming, . . . it is protected by the First Amendment”).
163 Rumsfeld v. Forum for Acad. & Institutional Rights, Inc., 547 U.S. 47, 62 (2006) (upholding law where “the
compelled speech . . . is plainly incidental to the [law’s] regulation of conduct”). However, even if a law generally
regulates conduct, it may still be subject to heightened scrutiny if it is applied to speech. See, e.g., Holder v.
Humanitarian Law Project, 561 U.S. 1, 28 (2010).
164 Univ. City Studios, Inc. v. Corley, 273 F.3d 429, 450 (2d Cir. 2001); see also, e.g., Junger v. Daley, 209 F.3d 481,
485 (6th Cir. 2000) (“Because computer source code is an expressive means for the exchange of information and ideas
about computer programming, we hold that it is protected by the First Amendment.”).
165 See, e.g., Name.Space, Inc. v. Network Solutions, Inc., 202 F.3d 573, 586 (2d Cir. 2000) (“[W]hile we hold that the
existing [generic Top Level Domains (gTLDs)] do not constitute protected speech under the First Amendment, we do
not preclude the possibility that certain domain names . . . could indeed amount to protected speech . . . .”); cf. Nat’l A1 Advert. v. Network Sols., Inc., 121 F. Supp. 2d 156, 171 (D.N.H. 2000) (noting that domain names might be
“expressive of some sort of message or idea,” but holding that the challenged names are not protected speech because
“the space occupied by second-level domain names does not constitute a discrete ‘forum’ for speech”).
166 Forum for Acad. & Institutional Rights, Inc., 547 U.S. at 66.
167 The Court has defined purely commercial speech as speech that “does ‘no more than propose a commercial
transaction,’” Va. State Bd. of Pharm. v. Va. Citizens Consumer Council, 425 U.S. 748, 762 (1976) (quoting Pittsburgh
Press Co. v. Human Relations Comm’n, 413 U.S. 376, 385 (1973)), or is “related solely to the economic interests of the
speaker and its audience,” Cent. Hudson Gas & Elec. Corp. v. Pub. Serv. Comm’n, 447 U.S. 557, 561 (1980).
168 Cent. Hudson, 447 U.S. at 562–63 (“The Constitution . . . accords a lesser protection to commercial speech than to
other constitutionally guaranteed expression.”); see also, e.g., Zhang v. Baidu.com, Inc., 10 F. Supp. 3d 433, 443
(S.D.N.Y. 2014) (holding that decision to block certain search results was not commercial speech, because the “search
results at issue in [that] case . . . relate[d] to matters of public concern and [did] not themselves propose transactions”).

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Advertisements posted on social media sites would likely qualify as commercial speech.169 If
speech is not purely commercial and is instead, for example, political advocacy, that speech may
receive greater protection.170 Certain categories of speech receive even less protection than
commercial speech.171 For example, the Supreme Court has said that states may prohibit speech
advocating violence if that “advocacy is directed to inciting or producing imminent lawless action
and is likely to incite or produce such action.”172 Thus, certain types of threatening or violent
speech posted on social media may not be entitled to First Amendment protection. However,
perhaps in light of the fact that it can be difficult to determine whether speech is protected, the
Court has sometimes held that criminal statutes targeting disfavored speech must include a mental
state requirement.173 For example, in United States v. X-Citement Video, the Court noted that, with
respect to a federal law prohibiting the distribution of child pornography,174 criminal liability
turned on “the age of the performers”—as did First Amendment protection for the materials,
given that “nonobscene, sexually explicit materials involving persons over the age of 17 are
protected by the First Amendment.”175 Accordingly, although the statute was unclear on this point,
the Court held that the law applied only if a person distributing such materials knew that the
performers were underage.176
Even if a statute does target a category of speech that is traditionally proscribable, it may still be
invalid if it is overbroad, in the sense that it prohibits a substantial amount of protected speech, as
well.177 Thus, for example, in Ashcroft v. Free Speech Coalition, the Supreme Court held that a
federal statute prohibiting “sexually explicit images that appear to depict minors”178 was
unconstitutionally overbroad.179 The statute encompassed pornography that did “not depict an
actual child,” prohibiting images that were “created by using adults who look like minors or by

169 See Cent. Hudson, 447 U.S. at 563.
170 See, e.g., Citizens United v. FEC, 558 U.S. 310, 340 (2010); Riley v. Nat’l Fed’n of the Blind, 487 U.S. 781, 796

(1988).
171 For example, the First Amendment does not prohibit states from regulating obscenity, defamation, or fighting
words. See, e.g., R.A.V. v. City of St. Paul, 505 U.S. 377, 383 (1992). The Court has frequently described these
categories of speech as unprotected, see, e.g., Miller v. California, 413 U.S. 15, 20–23 (1973), but more recently, the
Court has questioned whether this is technically true, instead emphasizing that these areas of speech may be more
freely regulated, see R.A.V., 505 U.S. at 383–84. Notably, “hate speech” is not, as such, one of these disfavored
categories. See, e.g., Julian Baumrin, Internet Hate Speech & the First Amendment, Revisited, 37 RUTGERS COMPUTER
& TECH. L.J. 223, 226 (2011). See generally CRS In Focus IF11072, The First Amendment: Categories of Speech, by
Victoria L. Killion (describing regulable categories of speech).
172 Brandenburg v. Ohio, 395 U.S. 444, 447 (1969) (per curiam).
173 See, e.g., Elonis v. United States, 135 S. Ct. 2001, 2012 (2015) (holding that a state could not prosecute a person
who posted threats on Facebook where the law did not include a mental state requirement requiring the defendant to
intend to issue a threat or know that the communication would be seen as a threat); United States v. X-Citement Video,
513 U.S. 64, 78 (1994) (concluding that the word “knowingly” in a federal criminal statute extended to both elements
of the crime); Smith v. California, 361 U.S. 147, 155 (1959) (holding that a city could not prohibit bookstores from
possessing obscene books where the law did not require booksellers to know that the books were obscene).
174 As described by the Court, “[t]he Protection of Children Against Sexual Exploitation Act of 1977, as amended,
prohibit[ed] the interstate transportation, shipping, receipt, distribution, or reproduction of visual depictions of minors
engaged in sexually explicit conduct.” 513 U.S. at 65–66.
175 Id. at 72–73.
176 Id. at 78 (“[W]e conclude that the term ‘knowingly’ in [18 U.S.C.] § 2252 extends both to the sexually explicit
nature of the material and to the age of the performers.”).
177 See, e.g., Broadrick v. Oklahoma, 413 U.S. 601, 615 (1973).
178 535 U.S. 234, 239 (2002).
179 Id. at 256.

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using computer imaging.”180 Thus, the Court held that the statute violated the First Amendment
because it “proscribe[d] a significant universe of speech that is neither obscene . . . nor child
pornography,” as those two categories had been defined in prior Supreme Court cases.181
A court would also look to the nature of the regulation itself, and primarily whether it is contentneutral, or whether it instead discriminates on the basis of content or viewpoint, subjecting that
law to strict scrutiny.182 The Court has said that “a speech regulation is content based if the law
applies to particular speech because of the topic discussed or the idea or message expressed.”183
In a strict scrutiny analysis, the government must prove that the “restriction ‘furthers a
compelling interest and is narrowly tailored to achieve that interest.’”184 If a regulation is contentneutral, which is to say, “justified without reference to the content of the regulated speech,” a
court employs an intermediate scrutiny analysis, asking whether the restriction is “narrowly
tailored to serve a significant governmental interest” and “leave[s] open ample alternative
channels for communication of the information.”185 Accordingly, for example, a federal court of
appeals held in Universal City Studios, Inc. v. Corley that government restrictions on posting or
linking to decryption computer programs did regulate speech protected by the First Amendment,
but ultimately upheld those restrictions as permissible content-neutral regulations.186
These first two inquiries are distinct, although they do overlap. If a statute targets speech rather
than conduct, it is likely that it will target that speech based on its content, and therefore will not
be content-neutral.187 And by contrast, a statute that targets conduct will likely be content-neutral
on its face. In Universal City Studios, Inc., the court held that the challenged government
regulations were content-neutral because they “target[ed] only the nonspeech component” of the
prohibited actions188 by focusing on the “functional” aspects of computer code that operate
without any human involvement.189 It is possible, though, that a law targeting speech would
nonetheless be content-neutral. For example, the Court has said that “a prohibition against the use

180 Id. at 239–40.
181 Id. at 240.
182 E.g. Reed v. Town of Gilbert, 135 S. Ct. 2218, 2231 (2015) (outlining test for content neutrality).
183 Id.
184 Citizens United v. FEC, 558 U.S. 310, 340 (2010) (quoting FEC v. Wisconsin Right to Life, Inc., 551 U.S. 448, 464

(2007)).
185 Ward v. Rock Against Racism, 491 U.S. 781, 791 (1989) (quoting Clark v. Cmty. for Creative Non-Violence, 468
U.S. 288, 293 (1984)). Ward and some subsequent cases emphasized governmental purpose as a key element in the
inquiry into content neutrality, asking whether the government “adopted a regulation of speech because of
disagreement with the message it conveys.” Id.; see also, e.g., Hill v. Colorado, 530 U.S. 703, 719 (2000). In Reed v.
Town of Gilbert, the Supreme Court said that “the crucial first step in the content-neutrality analysis” is “determining
whether the law is content neutral on its face.” 135 S. Ct. at 2228.
186 273 F.3d 429, 449, 453–58 (2d Cir. 2001).
187 See, e.g., Holder v. Humanitarian Law Project, 561 U.S. 1, 27 (2010).
188 273 F.3d at 454 (saying that a regulation “target[ing] only the nonspeech component” of a particular action is
“content-neutral, just as would be a restriction on trafficking in skeleton keys identified because of their capacity to
unlock jail cells, even though some of the keys happened to bear a slogan or other legend that qualified as a speech
component”).
189 Id. at 451. See also id. at 454 (“Neither the DMCA nor the posting prohibition is concerned with whatever capacity
DeCSS might have for conveying information to a human being, and that capacity, as previously explained, is what
arguably creates a speech component of the decryption code. The DMCA and the posting prohibition are applied to
DeCSS solely because of its capacity to instruct a computer to decrypt CSS.”).

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of sound trucks emitting ‘loud and raucous’ noise in residential neighborhoods is permissible if it
applies equally to music, political speech, and advertising.”190
A court might also look to the particular nature of the medium being regulated, asking whether
there are special characteristics that might justify greater regulation.191 The Supreme Court has
said that “[e]ach medium of expression . . . must be assessed for First Amendment purposes by
standards suited to it, for each may present its own problems.”192 The Court has been willing to
extend First Amendment protections that historically applied to speech communicated in
traditional public forums such as streets and sidewalks193 to new mediums for communication,
including video games194 and the internet.195 But the Court has also recognized that the principles
developed “in the context of streets and parks . . . should not be extended in a mechanical way to
the very different context of” newer media.196 While the Court has characterized social media as
“the modern public square,”197 it has not fully clarified what standards should apply to
government regulation of that medium—particularly with respect to social media platforms’ roles
as hosts for others’ speech.
The Supreme Court said in Reno v. ACLU that when considering government regulation of “the
Internet” in general, factors that had previously justified greater regulation of other media did not
apply.198 In that case, the Court held unconstitutional two provisions of the CDA that criminalized
the transmission of certain “indecent” or “patently offensive” material to minors over the
internet.199 The Court rejected the government’s argument that the regulation was permissible
because the internet is analogous to broadcast media, where the Court has permitted greater
regulation of speech.200 The Court noted that unlike the broadcast industry, “the vast democratic
fora of the Internet” had not traditionally “been subject to the type of government supervision and
regulation that has attended the broadcast industry,” and said that “the Internet is not as ‘invasive’
as radio or television.”201 Accordingly, the Court stated that there was “no basis for qualifying the
level of First Amendment scrutiny that should be applied to this medium.”202 However, as will be
190 Cincinnati v. Discovery Network, 507 U.S. 410, 428 (quoting Kovacs v. Cooper, 336 U.S. 77, 87 (1949)).
191 See, e.g., Red Lion Broad. Co. v. FCC, 395 U.S. 367, 386 (1969) (“[D]ifferences in the characteristics of new media

justify differences in the First Amendment standards applied to them.”).
192 Se. Promotions, Ltd. v. Conrad, 420 U.S. 546, 557 (1975).
193 See, e.g., McCullen v. Coakley, 134 S. Ct. 2518, 2529 (2014) (discussing traditional public forums).
194 Brown v. Entm’t Merchs. Ass’n, 564 U.S. 786, 790 (2011) (“[V]ideo games qualify for First Amendment
protection. The Free Speech Clause exists principally to protect discourse on public matters, but we have long
recognized that it is difficult to distinguish politics from entertainment, and dangerous to try.”).
195 E.g., Packingham v. North Carolina, 137 S. Ct. 1730, 1735 (2017) (recognizing “cyberspace” as “the most important
place[] . . . for the exchange of views”). As lower courts have recognized, however, this dicta from the Court does not
necessarily mean that “all conceivable means of communication associated with the Internet necessarily constitute
‘fora’ for protected speech.” Nat’l A-1 Advert. v. Network Sols., Inc., 121 F. Supp. 2d 156, 171 (D.N.H. 2000); see
also, e.g., Hargis v. Bevin, 298 F. Supp. 3d 1003, 1010–12 (E.D. Ky. 2018) (holding that state governor’s social media
pages are not public fora because the governor is speaking personally, on his own behalf, and has not opened the pages
for others’ speech).
196 Ark. Educ. Television Comm’n v. Forbes, 523 U.S. 666, 672–73 (1998).
197 Packingham v. North Carolina, 137 S. Ct. 1730, 1737 (2017).
198 Reno v. ACLU, 521 U.S. 844, 870 (1997) (holding that the factors that justified “qualifying the level of First
Amendment scrutiny that should be applied to” broadcast media did not apply to the Internet”).
199 Id. at 885.
200 Id. at 867, 868–70.
201 Id. at 868–69.
202 Id. at 870.

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discussed in more detail below, some scholars have argued that Reno, decided in 1997, does not
specifically address government regulation of modern social media sites, which may present
unique concerns from those discussed in Reno.203

Social Media Sites: Providing a Digital Public Square
Social media sites provide platforms for content originally generated by users. In that capacity,
social media sites decide whether to host users’ content and how that content is presented, and
may alter that content in the process.204 Whether these editorial functions are “speech” protected
by the First Amendment presents an especially difficult question. As one federal appellate court
noted, “entities that serve as conduits for speech produced by others” may “receive First
Amendment protection” if they “engage in editorial discretion” when “selecting which speech to
transmit.”205 On the other hand, the court said, such an entity might not be “a First Amendment
speaker”206 if it indiscriminately and neutrally transmits “any and all users’ speech.”207
Some have argued that social media sites’ publication decisions are protected under the First
Amendment.208 Until recently, academic debate focused largely on whether the algorithms
employed by search engines to retrieve and present results are properly characterized as the
speech of those search engines.209 One scholar argued that search engines’ publication activities
meet at least one of the criteria necessary to qualify for First Amendment protection: these sites
are publishing “sendable and receivable substantive message[s]”—or, in other words, they are
communicating content.210 Another scholar countered this argument by saying that indexing
search results is not equivalent to communicating protected ideas, arguing that to be entitled to
First Amendment protections, content must be “adopted or selected by the speaker as its own.”211

203 See infra notes 307 to 312 and accompanying text.
204 Cf., e.g., Eugene Volokh & Donald M. Falk, First Amendment Protection for Search Engine Results, 8 J.L. ECON. &

POL’Y 883, 884 (2012).
205 U.S. Telecom Ass’n v. FCC, 825 F.3d 674, 742 (D.C. Cir. 2016).
206 Id. at 743.
207 Id. at 742. See also, e.g., Rest. Law Ctr. v. New York City, No. 17 Civ. 9128 (PGG), 2019 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19378,
at *25 (S.D.N.Y. Feb. 6, 2019) (“Under the First Amendment, an entity’s mere transmission of others’ speech does not
necessarily constitute speech of that entity.”).
208 See, e.g., Eric Goldman, Of Course the First Amendment Protects Google and Facebook (And It’s Not a Close
Question), KNIGHT FIRST AMENDMENT INST. AT COLUMBIA UNIV. (Feb. 2018), https://bit.ly/2R6Ii12 [hereinafter
Goldman, First Amendment Protects Google and Facebook].
209 Compare, e.g., Stuart Minor Benjamin, Algorithms and Speech, 161 U. PA. L. REV. 1445, 1447 (2013) (“[I]f we
accept Supreme Court jurisprudence, the First Amendment encompasses a great swath of algorithm-based decisions—
specifically, algorithm-based outputs that entail a substantive communication.”), and Volokh & Falk, supra note 204, at
884 (arguing that “search engines are speakers”), with Oren Bracha & Frank Pasquale, Federal Search Commission?
Access, Fairness, and Accountability In the Law of Search, 93 CORNELL L. REV. 1149, 1193 (2008) (“It is highly
questionable that search results constitute the kind of speech recognized to be within the ambit of the First Amendment
according to either existing doctrine or any of the common normative theories in the field.”), and Tim Wu, Machine
Speech, 161 U. PA. L. REV. 1495, 1528–30 (2013) (arguing that search results are not speech protected by the First
Amendment).
210 Benjamin, supra note 209, at 1461. Professor Benjamin argues only that this element is necessary, and
acknowledges that it likely is not sufficient for First Amendment protections, asking instead “whether applying the
criteria identified above plus the exceptions the Court has articulated would be inconsistent with some elements of the
Court’s jurisprudence.” Id. at 1462.
211 Wu, supra note 209, at 1529–30.

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There are not many court decisions evaluating whether a social media site, by virtue of reprinting,
organizing, or even editing protected speech, is itself exercising free speech rights. While a few
federal courts have held that search engine results212 and decisions about whether to run
advertisements213 are speech protected by the First Amendment, these decisions are, so far,
limited to trial courts and therefore not precedential beyond the facts of those cases. This relative
dearth of cases is likely due in large part to the fact that, as discussed above,214 Section 230 of the
CDA bars a significant number of lawsuits that seek to hold social media providers liable for
publishing others’ content,215 often making it unnecessary to consider whether the First
Amendment protects these publication decisions.216 Section 230 has sometimes been described as
an attempt to protect the freedom of speech on the internet,217 suggesting that its displacement of
the First Amendment is an implicit consequence of Section 230’s speech-protective nature. In
other words, Section 230 creates immunity even where the First Amendment might not.218
Due to the lack of case law examining the issue, commentators have largely analyzed the question
of whether a social media site’s publication decisions are protected by the First Amendment by
analogy to other types of First Amendment cases. At least one scholar has argued that there are
three possible frameworks a court could apply to analyze governmental restrictions on social
media sites’ ability to moderate user content.219 The first analogy would treat social media sites as
equivalent to company towns.220 Under this scenario, social media sites would be treated as state
actors who are themselves bound to follow the First Amendment when they regulate protected
speech. The second possible framework would view social media sites as analogous to special
industries like common carriers or broadcast media, in which the Court has historically allowed
greater regulation of the industries’ speech in light of the need to protect public access for users
212 See e-ventures Worldwide, LLC v. Google, Inc., No. 2:14-cv-646-FtM-PAM-CM, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 88650, at

*11–12 (M.D. Fla. Feb. 8, 2017); Zhang v. Baidu.com, Inc., 10 F. Supp. 3d 433, 439 (S.D.N.Y. 2014); Search King,
Inc. v. Google Tech., Inc., No. CIV-02-1457-M, 2003 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 27193, at *12 (W.D. Okla. May 27, 2003).
213 Langdon v. Google, Inc., 474 F. Supp. 2d 622, 630 (D. Del. 2007).
214
Supra “Section 230 of the CDA.”
215 47 U.S.C. § 230.
216 See, e.g., Google LLC v. Equustek Sols. Inc., No. 5:17-cv-04207-EJD, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 182194, at *7 n.2
(N.D. Cal. Nov. 2, 2017) (holding that it was unnecessary to reach the defendant’s claim that its activity was protected
by the First Amendment because the defendant was entitled to immunity under Section 230); Ramey v. Darkside
Prods., No. 02-730, 2004 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 10107, at *12 (D.D.C. May 17, 2004) (same).
217 E.g., Zeran v. Am. Online, Inc. 129 F.3d 327, 330–31 (4th Cir. 1997).
218 Cf., e.g., Gucci Am., Inc. v. Hall & Assocs., 135 F. Supp. 2d 409, 422 (S.D.N.Y. 2001) (“Section 230 reflects a
‘policy choice,’ not a First Amendment imperative, to immunize ISPs from defamation and other ‘tort-based lawsuits,’
driven, in part, by free speech concerns.” (quoting Zeran, 129 F.3d at 330–31)). Interestingly, however, Section 230
creates immunity by providing that service providers cannot be treated as a publisher or speaker of content created by
another. E.g., Kimzey v. Yelp! Inc., 836 F.3d 1263, 1268 (9th Cir. 2016); see also id. at 1271 (“Simply put,
proliferation and dissemination of content does not equal creation or development of content.”). By contrast, First
Amendment protection would likely depend on the providers being seen as the publishers of others’ content. See, e.g.,
Goldman, First Amendment Protects Google and Facebook; Volokh & Falk, supra note 204, at 884. Section 230 was
enacted in direct response to a court decision that had concluded that an internet service provider should be considered
a publisher of defamatory statements that a third party had posted on a bulletin board that it hosted, and could therefore
be subject to suit for libel. See S. REP. NO. 104-230, at 194 (1996); 141 CONG. REC. H8469–70 (daily ed. Aug. 4, 1995)
(statement of Rep. Christopher Cox) (discussing Stratton-Oakmont, Inc. v. Prodigy Services Co., No. 31063/94, 1995
N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 229, at *10–11 (N.Y. Sup. Ct. May 26, 1995)). Arguably, this decision suggests that perhaps absent
Section 230 liability, courts would have viewed service providers as publishers. But cf., e.g., Cubby, Inc. v.
CompuServe, Inc., 776 F. Supp. 135, 140–41 (S.D.N.Y. 1991) (holding CompuServe could not be held liable unless “it
knew or had reason to know of the allegedly defamatory . . . statements” posted on its site).
219 Klonick, supra note 32, at 1658.
220 Id.

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of their services.221 The third analogy would treat social media sites like news editors, who
generally receive the full protections of the First Amendment when making editorial decisions.222
It is likely that no one analogy can account for all social media platforms, or all activities
performed by those platforms. Some social media platforms may exercise more editorial control
over user-generated content than others, and any given social media company performs a wide
variety of different functions. Consequently, determining which line of case law is most
analogous will likely depend on the particular activity being regulated.

Social Media Sites as Company Towns
As discussed in more detail above,223 although the First Amendment generally applies only to
government action, the Supreme Court has held that in limited, special circumstances, private
actors should be treated as the government and must comply with constitutional standards when
interacting with others.224 The archetypal case is that of the company town: in Marsh v. Alabama,
the Supreme Court held that the residents of a company-owned town—a town that was
functionally identical to any ordinary town, but for the fact of its ownership—were entitled to the
protections of the First Amendment when distributing religious literature on the streets and
sidewalks in that town.225 Courts have largely held that, under existing Supreme Court precedent,
social media providers do not meet the First Amendment’s state action requirement.226
Commentators have argued, however, that dicta in Supreme Court cases may suggest that social
media sites should be treated differently.227 As an initial matter, there is language in Marsh
suggesting that privately owned property may be subject to the First Amendment if it is opened
for public use:
Ownership does not always mean absolute dominion. The more an owner, for his
advantage, opens up his property for use by the public in general, the more do his rights
become circumscribed by the statutory and constitutional rights of those who use it. Thus,
the owners of privately held bridges, ferries, turnpikes and railroads may not operate them
as freely as a farmer does his farm. Since these facilities are built and operated primarily
to benefit the public and since their operation is essentially a public function, it is subject
to state regulation.228

At least one scholar has argued that, with respect to online forums, “Marsh should be expanded
and read functionally.”229 He suggests that courts should ask whether a given online space is the
221 Id. at 1660.
222 Id. at 1659–60.
223 Supra “First Amendment: State Action Requirement.”
224 See, e.g., Brentwood Acad. v. Tenn. Secondary Sch. Athletic Ass’n, 531 U.S. 288, 298 (2001).
225 326 U.S. 501, 507–09 (1946).
226 See supra note 63.
227 See Klonick, supra note 32, at 1659; Peters, supra note 18, at 1023; Heather Whitney, Search Engines, Social

Media, and the Editorial Analogy, KNIGHT FIRST AMENDMENT INST. AT COLUMBIA UNIV. (Feb. 2018),
https://bit.ly/2Tbl1YP.
228 Marsh, 326 U.S. at 506 (citation omitted). See also, e.g., Evans v. Newton, 382 U.S. 296, 302 (1966) (“A park . . .
traditionally serves the community. Mass recreation through the use of parks is plainly in the public domain; and state
courts that aid private parties to perform that public function on a segregated basis implicate the State in conduct
proscribed by the Fourteenth Amendment. Like the streets of the company town in Marsh v. Alabama . . . , the
predominant character and purpose of this park are municipal.” (citations omitted)).
229 Peters, supra note 18, at 1023.

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“functional equivalent” of a traditional public forum230 and should engage in a First Amendment
analysis that treats private ownership as “one factor” when balancing “the autonomy rights of
property owners against the expressive rights of property users.”231 But courts, by and large, have
rejected the broader implications of this language in Marsh,232 and the Supreme Court has held
that the mere fact that a private space is open to the public is not sufficient to “entitle” the public
to the protections of the First Amendment in that space.233
Another scholar, however, has argued that notwithstanding “this more narrow conception of the
public function exception,” social media sites should still be treated as equivalent to the state
under Marsh.234 He claims that social media sites perform a “public function”235 under Marsh by
“providing a space that has the primary purpose of serving as a forum for public communication
and expression, that is designated for that purpose, and that is completely open to the public at
large.”236 In his view, “[s]ince managing public squares and meeting places is something that has
traditionally been done by the government, social network websites therefore serve a public
function that has traditionally been the province of the state.”237 As mentioned above, however,
trial courts have declined to extend Marsh to social media sites, disagreeing that the provision of
a public forum238 or “the dissemination of news and fostering of debate”239 are public functions
that were traditionally and exclusively performed by the government.240
Others have argued that a more recent Supreme Court decision, Packingham v. North Carolina,241
might “signal a shift” in the state action analysis.242 In Packingham, the Court struck down a
North Carolina law that prohibited a registered sex offender from accessing any “commercial
social networking Web site where the sex offender knows that the site permits minor children to
become members or to create or maintain personal Web pages.”243 Critically, the Court stated that
“cyberspace” is today “the most important place[] . . . for the exchange of views” protected by the
First Amendment, analogizing Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter to traditional public forums244
and characterizing social media sites as “the modern public square.”245 In light of the importance
230 Id. He suggests that “several considerations would guide that assessment: (1) the nature of the private property

interests at issue, and (2) whether the space is operated for general use by the public for expressive purposes, or
whether the operation is itself a public function, either of which would favor a finding of state action.” Id. at 1024.
231 Id. at 1023.
232 See, e.g., Prager Univ. v. Google LLC, No. 17-CV-06064-LHK, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 51000, at *25–26 (N.D.
Cal. Mar. 26, 2018) (noting but rejecting the “broader language” in Marsh “that could be construed to support
Plaintiff’s position that because Defendants hold out and operate their private property (YouTube) as a forum dedicated
to allowing its users to express diverse points of view, Defendants should be treated as state actors”).
233 Lloyd Corp. v. Tanner, 407 U.S. 551, 569 (1972).
234 Benjamin F. Jackson, Censorship and Freedom of Expression in the Age of Facebook, 44 N.M. L. REV. 121, 146
(2014).
235 Marsh, 326 U.S. at 506.
236 Jackson, supra note 234, at 146.
237 Id.
238 Prager Univ. v. Google LLC, No. 17-CV-06064-LHK, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 51000, at *26 (N.D. Cal. Mar. 26,
2018).
239 Quigley v. Yelp, Inc., No. 17-cv-03771-RS, 2017 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 103771, at *4 (N.D. Cal. July 5, 2017).
240 See Jackson v. Metro. Edison Co., 419 U.S. 345, 352 (1974).
241 137 S. Ct. 1730, 1735 (2017).
242 Klonick, supra note 32, at 1659. See also Whitney, supra note 227.
243 137 S. Ct. at 1733 (quoting N.C. Gen. Stat. Ann. §§ 14-202.5(a), (e) (2015)) (internal quotation mark omitted).
244 Id. at 1735.
245 Id. at 1737 (“Social media allows users to gain access to information and communicate with one another about it on

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of these forums, the Court concluded that the statute was too broad and not sufficiently tailored to
serve the government’s asserted interest.246
Some have suggested that, if the Court views social media as “the modern public square,”247 it
may be more willing to say that social media companies “count as state actors for First
Amendment purposes.”248 Indeed, Justice Alito declined to join the majority opinion in
Packingham because he was concerned about the scope of the Court’s “musings that seem to
equate the entirety of the internet with public streets and parks.”249 He argued that this broader
language was “bound to be interpreted by some”—erroneously, in his view—as limiting the
government’s ability to “restrict . . . dangerous sexual predators” from some activities online.250
At least one court, however, has rejected some of the broader implications of this case, noting that
“Packingham did not, and had no occasion to, address whether private social media corporations
like YouTube are state actors that must regulate the content of their websites according to the
strictures of the First Amendment. Instead, . . . Packingham concerned whether North Carolina
ran afoul of the First Amendment . . . .”251
If social media sites were treated as state actors under the First Amendment, then the Constitution
itself would constrain their conduct when they act to restrict users’ protected speech.252 Under this
framework, Congress could enact legislation to remedy violations of free speech rights by social
media entities.253 For instance, Title III of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 authorizes the Attorney
General to bring a civil action against governmental facilities that deny a person equal access “on
account of his race, color, religion, or national origin,”254 essentially granting the Attorney
General the power to sue to enjoin certain acts that would violate the Fourteenth Amendment’s
Equal Protection Clause.255 To take another example, 42 U.S.C. § 1983 allows any person who
has been deprived by a state actor “of any rights, privileges, or immunities secured by the
Constitution” to bring certain civil actions to vindicate those rights in court.256
By contrast, commentators have argued that under this framework, the problems associated with
social media sites hosting too much speech—that is, problems caused by the dissemination of

any subject that might come to mind. By prohibiting sex offenders from using those websites, North Carolina with one
broad stroke bars access to what for many are the principal sources for knowing current events, checking ads for
employment, speaking and listening in the modern public square, and otherwise exploring the vast realms of human
thought and knowledge.” (citation omitted)).
246 Id.
247 Id.
248 Whitney, supra note 227.
249 Packingham, 137 S. Ct. at 1738 (Alito, J., concurring).
250 Id.
251 Prager Univ. v. Google LLC, No. 17-CV-06064-LHK, 2018 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 51000, at *24 (N.D. Cal. Mar. 26,
2018).
252
See, e.g., Marsh v. Alabama, 326 U.S. 501, 509 (1946).
253 Cf., e.g., City of Boerne v. Flores, 521 U.S. 507, 512 (1997) (“Legislation which deters or remedies constitutional
violations can fall within the sweep of Congress’ enforcement power even if in the process it prohibits conduct which is
not itself unconstitutional and intrudes into ‘legislative spheres of autonomy previously reserved to the States.’”
(quoting Fitzpatrick v. Bitzer, 427 U.S. 445, 455 (1976))).
254 42 U.S.C. § 2000b.
255 See, e.g., United States v. City of Philadelphia, 644 F.2d 187, 197 (3d Cir. 1980).
256 See, e.g., Lozman v. City of Riviera Beach, 138 S. Ct. 1945, 1951 (2018) (considering whether plaintiff sufficiently
alleged a “First Amendment claim for retaliatory arrest” under Section 1983).

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things like misinformation and hate speech—would be exacerbated.257 If these companies were
considered equivalent to state actors and their sites were seen as equivalent to traditional public
forums, their ability to regulate speech would be relatively circumscribed.258 And in turn, so
would the government be limited in its ability to require these platforms to take down certain
types of content, if that content qualified as protected speech.259 Thus, one scholar predicted that
under this framework, “[a]ll but the very basest speech would be explicitly allowed and
protected—making current problems of online hate speech, bullying, and terrorism, with which
many activists and scholars are concerned, unimaginably worse.”260
However, to the extent that a federal regulation infringed on speech properly attributed to the
social media sites, rather than their users—and this speech could include not only content
originally generated by the social media companies, but also their editorial decisions about usergenerated content—it could implicate an open First Amendment question. State and local
governments are constrained by the First Amendment when they interact with individuals, but the
Supreme Court has never squarely resolved whether states and municipalities could themselves
assert First Amendment rights against the federal government.261 At least one scholar has argued
that the First Amendment should protect government speech in certain circumstances.262 And in a
2015 case, the Supreme Court said that a private party could not force a state to include certain
messages in its own speech, suggesting that governments do have some right to speak for
themselves.263 On the other hand, Justice Stewart argued in a 1973 concurring opinion that the
government has no First Amendment rights, significantly, maintaining that the Court should not
treat broadcasters as state actors because it would “simply strip” them of their First Amendment
rights.264 Lower courts have largely followed Justice Stewart’s view and assumed that state actors

257 E.g., Keller, supra note 76, at 13 (“[H]old[ing] platforms to the same rules as the government . . . . would . . . require

platforms to preserve speech that many people find obnoxious, immoral, or dangerous.”); Klonick, supra note 32, at
1659 (“Interpreting online platforms as state actors . . . would also likely create an internet nobody wants. Platforms
would no longer be able to remove obscene or violent content.”).
258 While the category of “traditional public forums” has been interpreted relatively narrowly, the “same standards” that
apply there apply also in “designated public forums,” spaces that “the government has ‘intentionally opened up for
[the] purpose’” of providing a public forum. Minn. Voters All. v. Mansky, 138 S. Ct. 1876, 1885 (2018). Lower courts
have concluded that at least some government sites on social media qualify as public forums. See, e .g., Davison v.
Randall, 912 F.3d 666, 682 (4th Cir. 2019).
259 Cf., e.g., Davison, 912 F.3d at 687 (concluding that local government official engaged in unconstitutional viewpoint
discrimination when she banned a private party for posting a comment alleging governmental

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Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/documents/crs%3AR45650. Public record. Not legal advice.