{"id":37033,"date":"2024-06-26T15:31:01","date_gmt":"2024-06-26T15:31:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/?p=37033"},"modified":"2024-06-26T15:31:04","modified_gmt":"2024-06-26T15:31:04","slug":"murthy-v-missouri-supreme-court-decision-signals-end-of-baseless-social-media-censorship-claims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/murthy-v-missouri-supreme-court-decision-signals-end-of-baseless-social-media-censorship-claims\/","title":{"rendered":"Murthy v. Missouri Supreme Court Decision Signals End of Baseless Social Media \u201cCensorship\u201d Claims"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Today, the U.S. Supreme Court announced its decision in Murthy v. Missouri, <\/em>a lawsuit arguing that the Biden administration improperly coordinated with social media companies to censor conservative viewpoints under the guise of anti-misinformation campaigns. The Court sided with the Biden administration, finding that the plaintiffs lacked standing in their allegations of government coercion and censorship.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Public Knowledge previously<\/a> commented<\/a> on this case, arguing that communication between social media companies and specialized government agencies with distinct expertise is needed to ensure informed content moderation in the public interest. While we must ensure that social media platforms are not under undue or inappropriate pressure from the government, decisions that restrict informed, independent, and responsible content moderation will likely lead to the further deterioration of our information ecosystem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The following can be attributed to Lisa Macpherson, Policy Director at Public Knowledge:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe Supreme Court dismissed this specious case for lack of standing, in part because neither the states nor the individual social media users were able to prove \u2013 or even allege \u2013 that government agencies\u2019 or officials\u2019 actions caused them any injury. They weren\u2019t even able to prove the alleged government coercion ever happened: The Court found no traceability or causation between government communication and platforms\u2019 content moderation of the plaintiffs\u2019 posts.\u00a0<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cWe applaud this decision, which also closes the path for other plaintiffs to make similar baseless claims. We hope that it will help spell the end of the orchestrated effort to equate government communication with platforms with \u2018censorship,\u2019 with the aim of chilling platform content moderation and preserving the ability to use disinformation as a political strategy.\u201d

You may view our recent blog post, \u201cA Supreme Court Ruling in Murthy v. Missouri Could Help \u2013 or Hinder \u2013 Democracy<\/a>,\u201d for more information.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Decision closes the path for groundless claims.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":122,"featured_media":25479,"parent":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[11],"class_list":["post-37033","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-press-release","tag-content-moderation"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nMurthy v. Missouri Supreme Court Decision Signals End of Baseless Social Media \u201cCensorship\u201d Claims - Public Knowledge<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Public Knowledge promotes freedom of expression, an open internet, and access to affordable communications tools and creative works. We work to shape policy.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/murthy-v-missouri-supreme-court-decision-signals-end-of-baseless-social-media-censorship-claims\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Murthy v. Missouri Supreme Court Decision Signals End of Baseless Social Media \u201cCensorship\u201d Claims\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Public Knowledge promotes freedom of expression, an open internet, and access to affordable communications tools and creative works. We work to shape policy.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/murthy-v-missouri-supreme-court-decision-signals-end-of-baseless-social-media-censorship-claims\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Public Knowledge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-06-26T15:31:01+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-06-26T15:31:04+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Court-Decisions-Template-1440x720.png\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1440\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"720\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/png\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Shiva Stella\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Shiva Stella\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/murthy-v-missouri-supreme-court-decision-signals-end-of-baseless-social-media-censorship-claims\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/murthy-v-missouri-supreme-court-decision-signals-end-of-baseless-social-media-censorship-claims\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Shiva Stella\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/#\/schema\/person\/f91ba684ee6c75ffda797642f02e2f47\"},\"headline\":\"Murthy v. Missouri Supreme Court Decision Signals End of Baseless Social Media \u201cCensorship\u201d Claims\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-06-26T15:31:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-06-26T15:31:04+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/murthy-v-missouri-supreme-court-decision-signals-end-of-baseless-social-media-censorship-claims\/\"},\"wordCount\":305,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/#organization\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/murthy-v-missouri-supreme-court-decision-signals-end-of-baseless-social-media-censorship-claims\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Court-Decisions-Template.png\",\"keywords\":[\"Content Moderation\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Press Release\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/murthy-v-missouri-supreme-court-decision-signals-end-of-baseless-social-media-censorship-claims\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/murthy-v-missouri-supreme-court-decision-signals-end-of-baseless-social-media-censorship-claims\/\",\"name\":\"Murthy v. Missouri Supreme Court Decision Signals End of Baseless Social Media \u201cCensorship\u201d Claims - Public Knowledge\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/murthy-v-missouri-supreme-court-decision-signals-end-of-baseless-social-media-censorship-claims\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/murthy-v-missouri-supreme-court-decision-signals-end-of-baseless-social-media-censorship-claims\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Court-Decisions-Template.png\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-06-26T15:31:01+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-06-26T15:31:04+00:00\",\"description\":\"Public Knowledge promotes freedom of expression, an open internet, and access to affordable communications tools and creative works. We work to shape policy.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/murthy-v-missouri-supreme-court-decision-signals-end-of-baseless-social-media-censorship-claims\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/murthy-v-missouri-supreme-court-decision-signals-end-of-baseless-social-media-censorship-claims\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/murthy-v-missouri-supreme-court-decision-signals-end-of-baseless-social-media-censorship-claims\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Court-Decisions-Template.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Court-Decisions-Template.png\",\"width\":2000,\"height\":1000},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/murthy-v-missouri-supreme-court-decision-signals-end-of-baseless-social-media-censorship-claims\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Murthy v. Missouri Supreme Court Decision Signals End of Baseless Social Media \u201cCensorship\u201d Claims\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/\",\"name\":\"Public Knowledge\",\"description\":\"\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":{\"@type\":\"PropertyValueSpecification\",\"valueRequired\":true,\"valueName\":\"search_term_string\"}}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Public Knowledge\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/pk_social_logo-2.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/pk_social_logo-2.png\",\"width\":400,\"height\":200,\"caption\":\"Public Knowledge\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/#\/schema\/person\/f91ba684ee6c75ffda797642f02e2f47\",\"name\":\"Shiva Stella\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3972a3158caa1a43dc53ff01456ac66a51833e250e2f2d874bc4db9f2f93f665?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3972a3158caa1a43dc53ff01456ac66a51833e250e2f2d874bc4db9f2f93f665?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Shiva Stella\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/author\/shiva-stella\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO Premium plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Murthy v. Missouri Supreme Court Decision Signals End of Baseless Social Media \u201cCensorship\u201d Claims - Public Knowledge","description":"Public Knowledge promotes freedom of expression, an open internet, and access to affordable communications tools and creative works. We work to shape policy.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/murthy-v-missouri-supreme-court-decision-signals-end-of-baseless-social-media-censorship-claims\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Murthy v. Missouri Supreme Court Decision Signals End of Baseless Social Media \u201cCensorship\u201d Claims","og_description":"Public Knowledge promotes freedom of expression, an open internet, and access to affordable communications tools and creative works. We work to shape policy.","og_url":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/murthy-v-missouri-supreme-court-decision-signals-end-of-baseless-social-media-censorship-claims\/","og_site_name":"Public Knowledge","article_published_time":"2024-06-26T15:31:01+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-06-26T15:31:04+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1440,"height":720,"url":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Court-Decisions-Template-1440x720.png","type":"image\/png"}],"author":"Shiva Stella","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Shiva Stella","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/murthy-v-missouri-supreme-court-decision-signals-end-of-baseless-social-media-censorship-claims\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/murthy-v-missouri-supreme-court-decision-signals-end-of-baseless-social-media-censorship-claims\/"},"author":{"name":"Shiva Stella","@id":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/#\/schema\/person\/f91ba684ee6c75ffda797642f02e2f47"},"headline":"Murthy v. Missouri Supreme Court Decision Signals End of Baseless Social Media \u201cCensorship\u201d Claims","datePublished":"2024-06-26T15:31:01+00:00","dateModified":"2024-06-26T15:31:04+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/murthy-v-missouri-supreme-court-decision-signals-end-of-baseless-social-media-censorship-claims\/"},"wordCount":305,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/#organization"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/murthy-v-missouri-supreme-court-decision-signals-end-of-baseless-social-media-censorship-claims\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Court-Decisions-Template.png","keywords":["Content Moderation"],"articleSection":["Press Release"],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/murthy-v-missouri-supreme-court-decision-signals-end-of-baseless-social-media-censorship-claims\/","url":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/murthy-v-missouri-supreme-court-decision-signals-end-of-baseless-social-media-censorship-claims\/","name":"Murthy v. Missouri Supreme Court Decision Signals End of Baseless Social Media \u201cCensorship\u201d Claims - Public Knowledge","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/murthy-v-missouri-supreme-court-decision-signals-end-of-baseless-social-media-censorship-claims\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/murthy-v-missouri-supreme-court-decision-signals-end-of-baseless-social-media-censorship-claims\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Court-Decisions-Template.png","datePublished":"2024-06-26T15:31:01+00:00","dateModified":"2024-06-26T15:31:04+00:00","description":"Public Knowledge promotes freedom of expression, an open internet, and access to affordable communications tools and creative works. We work to shape policy.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/murthy-v-missouri-supreme-court-decision-signals-end-of-baseless-social-media-censorship-claims\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/murthy-v-missouri-supreme-court-decision-signals-end-of-baseless-social-media-censorship-claims\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/murthy-v-missouri-supreme-court-decision-signals-end-of-baseless-social-media-censorship-claims\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Court-Decisions-Template.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/Court-Decisions-Template.png","width":2000,"height":1000},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/murthy-v-missouri-supreme-court-decision-signals-end-of-baseless-social-media-censorship-claims\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Murthy v. Missouri Supreme Court Decision Signals End of Baseless Social Media \u201cCensorship\u201d Claims"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/","name":"Public Knowledge","description":"","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":{"@type":"PropertyValueSpecification","valueRequired":true,"valueName":"search_term_string"}}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/#organization","name":"Public Knowledge","url":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/pk_social_logo-2.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/12\/pk_social_logo-2.png","width":400,"height":200,"caption":"Public Knowledge"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/#\/schema\/person\/f91ba684ee6c75ffda797642f02e2f47","name":"Shiva Stella","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3972a3158caa1a43dc53ff01456ac66a51833e250e2f2d874bc4db9f2f93f665?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/3972a3158caa1a43dc53ff01456ac66a51833e250e2f2d874bc4db9f2f93f665?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Shiva Stella"},"url":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/author\/shiva-stella\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37033","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/122"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37033"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37033\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/25479"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37033"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37033"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/publicknowledge.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37033"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}