The First Amendment Supreme Court case right wingers are crazy for

At the height of the Covid-19 pandemic – a time when social media was one of the few ways people could connect with each other and keep tabs on current events – the long-held debate around how to handle online misinformation spiralled.

Conspiracies about the integrity of US elections was soaring, misinformation about the origins of Covid-19 was rampant and speculation about the safety of vaccines was flooding social media.

Set against a backdrop of a highly politically polarising time, government officials decided some sort of regulation was needed.

And so, the US government requested that Twitter, Facebook and other social media companies remove misinformation specifically about Covid-19 and the 2020 election from their platforms.

As a result, several right-wing individuals had their content restricted, taken down or blocked in what they claim was the Biden administration teaming up with social media companies to suppress conservative speech online.

This, they claimed was a violation of their First Amendment right to free speech.

Attorney generals of Missouri and Louisana sued the White House, along with dozens of officials and agencies, accusing them of coercing social media platforms into stifling political speech.

The case quickly turned into a partisan issue right-wing figures invoking conspiracy-theory-like mindsets.

Now, the issue has reached the nation’s highest court with the Supreme Court hearing arguments in Murthy v Missouri (formerly Missouri v Biden) on Monday.

The ruling from the justices could completely alter the way the government uses social media to tackle misinformation.

Smart phone screen displays a new policy on Covid-19 misinformation with a Facebook website in the background

So what is the case