September 19, 2022 – A Texas law prohibiting social media companies from banning or censoring users based on “viewpoint” was upheld on Friday by an appeals court, which declared that the law does not violate the First Amendments rights of Big Tech’s social media platforms.
The court remarked it rejected “the idea that corporations have a freewheeling First Amendment right to censor what people say”.
The law has been termed controversial by many and will bar social media platforms with over 50 million users, such as Facebook, YouTube, Twitter, from enforcing their content regulating rules on any post that claims to be expressing a political viewpoint if it goes into effect. The law originally forbids tech corporations to “block, ban, remove, de-platform, demonetize, de-boost, restrict, deny equal access or visibility to, or otherwise discriminate against expression.”
According to reports, the ruling may result in similar laws in other US states, unless it is overturned by a US Supreme Court appeal.
Tech firms and their representative groups have raised concerns at the court’s decision. They have labelled the law “unconstitutional”, saying that tech platforms have the right to take down “objectionable” speech on their social networking platforms. They argue that the ruling will allow hate speech and dangerous content to thrive on online platforms if parent organisations are barred from taking action against it.
“We strongly disagree with the court’s decision,” said Matt Schruers, president of the Computer & Communications Industry Association, one of the tech groups that challenged the law. “Forcing private companies to give equal treatment to all viewpoints on their platforms places foreign propaganda and extremism on equal footing with decent Internet users, and places Americans at risk.”
Besides the CCIA, NetChoice was also among the tech groups that challenged the controversial law. They represented Facebook’s parent company Meta, Twitter, Google and YouTube.
