The Supreme Court has temporarily blocked a sweeping Texas law that restricts the ability of Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube to moderate content on their platforms.
In a vote of 5-4, the Supreme Court justices granted an emergency request from the tech industry to block a lower court order that would have allowed the law to come into place, pending legal challenges.
The Texas law bars sites like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, and other popular social media platforms from blocking content based on viewpoints.
There was a usual alignment between the justices in the majority and minority. In the majority were Chief Justice John Roberts, Stephen Breyer, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, and Sonia Sotomayor. In the minority, it was liberal Justice Elena Kagan, and the three most conservative justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, and Neil Gorsuch.
The Texas law HB 20 prohibits large social media firms from blocking, banning, or demoting posts or accounts. The Supreme Court order is a loss for Texas, which argued that HB 20 law does not violate the first amendment. Gov. Greg Abbott said social media platforms “silence conservative viewpoints and ideas.”
Human rights activists say that really the rules just ban hate speech and violence.
The tech industry and others in opposition to HB 20 argued that the legislation infringes on the constitutional rights of tech platforms to make editorial decisions and to be free from government-compelled speech.
Texas argued that HB 20 does not violate the First Amendment because the law seeks to regulate the social media platforms’ conduct toward their users, not the speech of the companies.
In a wider view, the case is seen as an indicator for the social media industry. It could determine whether tech platforms and social media platforms need to scale back their content moderation in states other than just Texas and allow topics that terms currently prohibit.
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