By Brendan Pierson

(Reuters] – The Florida law that attempted to prevent social media companies from restricting users political speech is in large part invalid and can’t be enforced. On Monday, a federal appeals Court agreed with a lower court.

A panel consisting of three judges from the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reintroduced a portion of the law requiring that companies such as Meta Platforms’ Facebook, Alphabet (NASDAQ.) Inc and Google be listed on their website. Twitter Inc (NYSE:) for information about the standards used to moderate content.

Circuit Judge Kevin Newsom (resigning Republican ex-President Donald Trump) authored the unanimous decision.

The 11th Circuit found that parts of the law governing political speech were in violation of social media company’s First Amendment rights to choose what they publish. The court ordered that the lower court reconsider this matter, as it stated that they likely didn’t disclose their standards.

Florida Governor Ron DeSantis’s office didn’t immediately reply to my request for comment. He signed the law May 2021.

NetChoice was an industry association that includes Facebook, Google, and Twitter. It had sued the law to contest it. NetChoice noted the U.S. Constitution’s protections when they were asked for comments.

Carl Szabo (NetChoice Vice President) stated that “The First Amendment protects platforms” and said that they have the right to control content. He also noted that they cannot be forced to post content they don’t like.

Republican DeSantis previously stated that the law was necessary to stop “censorship by Big Tech.” He pointed to Trump’s January 2021 removal from Twitter and Facebook. Trump’s praises of his supporters for storming the U.S. Capitol following the 2020 election was cited by the companies as one reason for the bans.

Florida law will punish social media platforms that have banned political candidates. The law was stopped by a federal judge in June.

An earlier in the month, another federal appeals court upheld an Texas law that prohibited social media companies from banning their users for political opinions. NetChoice has asked the U.S. Supreme Court not to stop this law.