The Morning: The internet and the First Amendment

Plus, Israel, European Parliament elections and cricket.

View in browser|nytimes.com June 10, 2024 Good morning. Today, my colleague David McCabe helps you understand the upcoming legal rulings that will shape online life. We're also covering Israel, European Parliament elections and cricket. —David Leonhardt In New York City.  Shannon Stapleton/Reuters Free speech online By David McCabe I cover technology policy. Here is a puzzle at the center of online life: How should we balance freedom of speech with the flood of slanderous statements, extremist manifestoes and conspiracy theories that proliferate on the internet? The United States decided decades ago to let private companies solve that quandary themselves. The Supreme Court made this position official in three major rulings in the 1990s and early 2000s. But lawmakers aren't sure about this arrangement, now that giant online platforms are the new town square. The left says Facebook, YouTube, TikTok and the rest should take more content down, especially hate speech and disinformation. The right says the companies, which removed posts about Covid and the 2020 election, shouldn't set the rules for discussions about politics and culture. Now a series of federal court cases will address these questions. Supreme Court justices will decide a few in the next month or two. In today's newsletter, I'll explain how those cases could change the way the First Amendment functions in the internet era. The decisions Courts have faced six broad questions about online speech. The Supreme Court has ruled on two of them. When can social media sites be sued over what users post? Rarely. Two Supreme Court rulings last year kept protections in place for websites from most lawsuits related to content posted by users. Relatives of victims of terrorist attacks had argued that Google and Twitter should be legally responsible for content posted by the Islamic State. The justices disagreed. Can government officials block constituents on social media? Sometimes. The Supreme Court ruled in March that public officials can't stop a constituent from commenting on their posts if they are acting in their role as political officeholders. The questions Four other philosophical questions are still in progress. Can the government force social media sites to host political content? Twitter, YouTube and Facebook suspended Donald Trump in 2021 after the Jan. 6 riot. Then Florida and Texas passed laws designed to restrict such moves. The Supreme Court will soon rule on those laws, and the justices appeared skeptical of them during oral arguments in February, my colleague Adam Liptak reported. When can the United States push social media sites to remove content? The government prodded social media services to take down certain posts related to Covid and elections. Missouri, Louisiana and five individuals argued that's a violation of the First Amendment. They say the government used private companies to stifle a specific viewpoint. The Supreme Court seemed wary of the lawsuit in March. The justices' skepticism of conservatives' argument is a sign of how complex it is to draw boundaries in this area of the law. Can the government restrict access to online pornography? Texas passed a law last year that requires adult sites to check the age of their visitors. Parents can sue sites if the sites fail to do so and their child views pornography. If the law stands, adults will need to reveal their identity to pornography sites instead of remaining anonymous. The sites say this puts a barrier between adults and speech they have a right to view under the Constitution. The case is now in federal appeals court. Can the government ban a foreign-owned social media platform? President Biden signed a law in April that will ban TikTok unless it is sold by its Chinese parent company, citing national security. TikTok says the measure curtails free speech rights — both its own and its users'. Federal courts are planning to hear the case this year. If they uphold the law, it will affirm the federal government's right to eliminate a platform for speech in the national interest. If judges strike it down, it may allow news and social media sites to serve Americans even when they are owned by a company from an enemy nation. In Los Angeles.  Allison Dinner/EPA, via Shutterstock What this means for users With this many kinds of cases, the range of outcomes is vast. If the courts decide the status quo is wrong, internet platforms might limit what you can post — or take down more of it — just to be sure they are complying with the laws. Another possibility: The courts could decide that they got this question right the first time they considered it, 30 years ago. Free speech online might not change much. But private companies would now formally be entrenched as its arbiter. For more Germany has gone further than any other Western democracy to prosecute right-wing extremists for what they say online, testing the limits of speech on the internet. State lawmakers worked with Silicon Valley to write new measures that would protect children from online sexual exploitation. Then social media companies sued. ADVERTISEMENT THE LATEST NEWS Israel-Hamas War Benny Gantz Nir Elias/Reuters Benny Gantz, a key member of Israel's war cabinet, quit the government over Benjamin Netanyahu's handling of the war. The U.S. is pushing the U.N. Security Council to vote on a resolution calling for a cease-fire and release of all hostages. The commander of the Israeli military's Gaza division resigned over the Oct. 7 attacks. He said in a letter that he had failed to protect Israeli communities on the border of Gaza. The rescue of four hostages in Gaza showed how Israeli and U.S. intelligence teams work together to locate captives. "The bombing was unimaginably intense": Gazans described Israel's bombardment during the hostage rescue operation, which killed scores of Palestinians. European Elections Protesters in Paris after the election results. Arnaud Finistre/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images In the European Parliament elections, voters in the 27 member states largely backed centrists, but far-right parties made serious gains in France and Germany. After the results, Emmanuel Macron called legislative elections beginning later this month, before the Olympics. Marine Le Pen's ultranationalist party came out ahead in France. The Greens, a party focused on the environment, were the night's biggest losers, in part because other parties had incorporated their message. Read more takeaways from the elections. The A.P. explained the results in other key countries, including Italy and Hungary. More International News An Iranian council approved six candidates to run to succeed Ebrahim Raisi, the president who died in a helicopter crash last month. The peso fell after Mexico's leftists won in a general election. Investors are worried the government could pass changes seen as dismantling democratic checks and balances. Vladimir Putin is purging Defense Ministry officials accused of corruption, The Washington Post reports. Business In Sweden. Amir Hamja/The New York Times Americans have long dreamed that modular construction would solve the country's affordable housing crisis. See how Sweden made that dream a reality. Apple will today showcase a version of its voice assistant, Siri, powered by generative A.I. The company has struck a deal with OpenAI. Meet the inventor behind some of Disney's most advanced tech, including lightsabers. He let The Wall Street Journal look in his lab. Politics Donald Trump endorsed Sam Brown, an Army veteran who is running for Senate in Nevada. A Jan. 6 rioter is running for a seat in South Carolina's legislature. He appears to be betting that primary voters will see his trespassing conviction as a badge of honor. A writer was close to the Clintons before he became disillusioned with politics and moved to Hollywood. Now, he's helping steer Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s campaign. Other Big Stories Lisa Goree Anna Watts for The New York Times Lisa Goree recently became the first female leader of the Shinnecock Nation in centuries. Her supporters say her election is a return to the tribe's matriarchal leadership roots. In elder care, verbal abuse and aggression between residents is common. Experts say better staffing and training could ease tensions. Opinions We are all fed myths about our hometowns, but the truth is often far more complex, writes Maxim Loskutoff about the American West. The #MeToo movement needs to offer a path to forgiveness for perpetrators, Lux Alptraum writes. Gail Collins and Bret Stephens discuss the Hunter Biden trial and President Biden's age. Here are columns by Zeynep Tufekci on the Covid hearings and David French on being canceled by his old church. Readers of The Morning: For a limited time, enjoy 7 free days. Discover all of The Times, from expert coverage to games to cooking, sports and more, free for one week, then $1/week for your first six months. Try The Times now. MORNING READS Caring from home.  Sylvia Jarrus for The New York Times Logging on: Some doulas, relied upon for pregnancy and childbirth support, are doing their work virtually. Boeing: Is it time for a new plane? Read about the big decision the company's next C.E.O. faces. Sign here: Meet the parents pledging to keep their kids phone-free until they're older. Better friends: Want to strengthen your relationships? Join our 5-day friendship challenge. Metropolitan Diary: He had a cameo in "Taxi Driver." Lives Lived: Jean-Philippe Allard was a French record executive and producer who helped revive the careers of jazz greats who had been all but forgotten in the U.S. He called himself a "professional listener" and developed lifelong relationships with artists he worked with. He died at 67. SPORTS In Nassau County, New York.  Yuvraj Khanna for The New York Times Cricket: India won its highly anticipated World Cup match against Pakistan. More than 34,000 spectators crammed into a temporary stadium on Long Island to witness it. Tennis: Carlos Alcaraz won his first French Open title, the third Grand Slam win of the 21-year-old's ascendant career. N.B.A.: The Boston Celtics defeated the Dallas Mavericks to take a 2-0 lead in their series. Golf: Scottie Scheffler won the Memorial Tournament, becoming the first golfer since 2017 to win five PGA Tour events in a single season. ADVERTISEMENT ARTS AND IDEAS The arrival of "Hannibal," which brought back the pop-culture villain, kicked off a book-business frenzy. Antonio Olmos/Guardian, via eyevine and Redux Twenty-five years ago this summer, the author Thomas Harris released "Hannibal," the long-awaited sequel to 1988's "The Silence of the Lambs." Critics praised the sequel, as had Stephen King. However, negative reviews started to appear on Amazon, which, in 1999, was emerging as a crucial feedback machine. Read a retrospective about the release of the book, which was among the last blockbuster novels of the 1990s and the first of hyper-opinionated internet era. More on culture In Brooklyn.  OK McCausland for The New York Times Sam's Restaurant, an almost 100-year-old New York pizzeria in Cobble Hill, is a go-to spot for film crews looking to capture Brooklyn's charm. "Bad Boys: Ride or Die" — Will Smith's first wide-release film since he slapped Chris Rock at the Oscars in 2022 — opened to around $56 million at the North American box office. Ahead of the Belgian election, the nation was transfixed by a reality show in which seven political rivals spent a weekend together in a medieval château. Americans are buying Hermès products as its bags have become a coveted status symbol, The Washington Post reports. THE MORNING RECOMMENDS … Linda Xiao for The New York Times. Food Stylist: Hadas Smirnoff. Pair roasted red peppers with garlicky beans and greens. Try black wine. Invest in products that will last a lifetime. Explore Father's Day sales. Take our news quiz. GAMES Here is today's Spelling Bee. Yesterday's pangrams were awakening, wakening and weakening. And here are today's Mini Crossword, Wordle, Sudoku, Connections and Strands. Thanks for spending part of your morning with The Times. See you tomorrow. 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