California appellate court rules that Twitter has right to ban users for hate speech

The Court of Appeal of the State of California ruled that Twitter has the right to suspend users’ accounts for speech considered hateful by their policies. The case involved a Canadian writer who was banned from the platform after several tweets about transgender women. Initially, the platform took down her posts and informed her that she had breached platform rules. Later, after she insisted on posting derogatory messages about transgender women, Twitter suspended her account. 

The court based its decision to not hold Twitter liable for moderating hateful content on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which provides online platforms with immunity from liability associated with traditional editorial functions undertaken by publishers, including decisions whether to publish, withdraw, postpone, or alter content created by third parties.