Supreme Court
The Supreme Court granted certiorari to the case in October 2022, along with a related case Twitter, Inc. v. Taamneh also dealing with Section 230 and terrorism-related content. They will be the first cases that the Court will hear over Section 230, which since around 2015 has come under increasing partisan criticism towards Big Tech. Justice Clarence Thomas had spoken to a need to review Section 230 in previous dissenting statements to court orders, arguing that social media companies should be regulated like "common carriers", which would prohibit content-based discrimination.[5]
Many of the Big Tech companies provided their own amicus curiae to support Google's recommender system as part of the case, as well as smaller sites including Reddit and the Wikimedia Foundation which rely on moderation systems that partially incorporate user moderation as part of their systems. While there is general support for updating Section 230 to reflect modern concerns, these briefs broadly stressed the need to let Congress pass legislation rather than having the Supreme Court issue its own judgement.[8] This position was also upheld by Ron Wyden and Christopher Cox, the lawmakers behind Section 230, and law professor Eric Goldman who has written extensively about Section 230, in addition to mobile app platforms like Yelp and Craigslist and free speech advocacy groups like the ACLU and the Electronic Frontier Foundation.[9][7]
Briefs in support of Gonzalez' position include several Republican Congresspeople including Ted Cruz, Mike Johnson, and Josh Hawley. Some advocacy groups, like the Anti-Defamation League, argue that Google and other Big Tech groups have used Section 230 to remain immune for their own conduct, while also defending robust section 230 protection for moderation decisions. Groups that support child protections on the Internet also provided briefs for Gonzalez.[9][7]
Oral arguments in Gonzalez were held February 21, 2023. Observers to the Court found the Justices from both liberal and conservative sides questioning the issues around algorithms, stating that most Internet services are based on algorithms. The Justices had also questioned whether YouTube's algorithm was specifically tailored to promote terrorism-related content.[10] The Justices were not sure it would be possible to delineate content further, and the potential for a mass of lawsuits and economic impact should Section 230 be changed. Justice Amy Coney Barrett suggested that the result of the related Twitter case may help resolve the case against Google.[11]
The Court issued decisions for both Gonzalez and Twitter on May 18, 2023. In Twitter, the Court unanimously held that the families' claims against the social media companies were not allowable under the Antiterrorism Act, and did not make any ruling related to Section 230. Subsequently, in the per curiam order given for Gonzalez, the Court vacated the Ninth Circuit's decision and remanded the case for that court to reconsider the case in light of the Twitter decision.[12]
