United States: Supreme Court has rejected a long-standing legal challenge from X Corp., formerly known as Twitter

The Supreme Court has rejected a long-standing legal challenge from X Corp., formerly known as Twitter, in the case of X Corp. v. Garland. The court's denial, included in a list of rejected petitions released this morning, upholds a March 2023 ruling that concluded the First Amendment does not protect Twitter from restrictions on reporting national security demands.

Twitter initially filed the lawsuit in 2014, a year after whistleblower Edward Snowden exposed extensive secret US telecoms surveillance. Following these revelations, social networks were granted the option to disclose the number of demands made by agencies such as the Federal Bureau of Investigation, albeit within broad ranges due to government nondisclosure requirements. Twitter, dissatisfied with these limitations, sought to publish the exact number of requests it received within a specific period, arguing that FBI-mandated redactions violated the First Amendment.

Despite Twitter's arguments, courts, including the recent decision by the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals in March, have largely sided against the platform. The appellate panel acknowledged Twitter's First Amendment interest in commenting on matters of public concern related to national security subpoenas but concluded that disclosing the exact details would jeopardize national security by making foreign adversaries aware of surveillance efforts.

Civil liberties organizations, including the American Civil Liberties Union, criticized the decision, calling it "disappointing and dangerous." They argued that the panel's reasoning could pave the way for broader restrictions on speech concerning interactions with the government, conflicting with decades of Supreme Court precedent.

Twitter, owned by billionaire Elon Musk at the time of the case, contended that the ruling would "substantially erode" previous First Amendment precedents. The company, both in its previous and current iterations as X, has a history of legal battles worldwide over government demands for takedowns and surveillance.

As X, the platform is currently entangled in a struggle against state-level internet regulation, while also seeking legal means to suppress criticism of the platform. Additionally, the Supreme Court previously ruled on another Twitter case, Twitter v. Taamneh, where it determined that the social network had not aided and abetted terrorists by failing to ban certain accounts.