The issue focused on the Federal Communications Commission's data collection and the agency's then-early use of technical tools for analyzing social media posts. The review focused on whether the program should be known as a "data collection and analysis program" or a collection and analysis of political speech "as intended."


The FCC said in its opinion that the new approach is different because of the internet age and that the program is not supposed to be subject to the same standards of evaluation as the collection of speech under First Amendment