Texas Republicans want to be able to post their views on social media, even when they violate the policies . On Wednesday, conservatives won a victory in their ongoing battle with social media companies that allows them to sue platforms that block their accounts.
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Last year, Texas passed a law that allowed aggrieved users to sue companies like Twitter and Facebook to suspend their accounts or block their content, calling the sites “central public forums.” But after some of those platforms fought back, federal judges put the Texas in December. On Wednesday, judges on the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in a conservative opinion lifted the court’s temporary injunction on the law.
HB 20, or the Freedom From Censorship Act, ostensibly gives users the right to sue major social media companies for suspending their accounts or blocking their posted content, even if that content violates the platform’s policies. The Texas law applies to all users within Texas, as well as any business doing business in Texas. It also applies to any user who “shares or receives content on a social media platform in this state,” which could potentially apply to a wide range of users.
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Social media companies fought back when the original law was signed, and last September, social media-backed trade groups the Computer and Communications Industry Association and NetChoice also sued, arguing that the law would hinder the platforms' ability to curb hate speech and misinformation.
HB 20 defines any website or application “that is open to the public, allows a user to create an account, and allows users to communicate with other users for the primary purpose of posting information, comments, messages, or images” as one of these examples of social media that apply under the law.
In a statement posted on Twitter, NetChoice policy advisor Chris Marchesesaid that HB 20 is “constitutionally rotten from top to bottom” and that they plan to appeal.
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Similarly, in a separate statement, CCIA President Matthew Schruers said, "No options are off the table. We will do whatever is necessary to ensure that the free market, not government hype, decides what digital services do and don't disseminate."
Courts nationwide have not agreed on whether social media is actually a public forum. A similar Florida law that allows users to sue social media, signed by America’s other prominent Republican governor, Ron DeSantis , has remained under judicial review. A judge also dismissed Trump ’s lawsuit over his continued ban on Twitter.
