The state of Texas passed a law that prevents social media from censoring conservative content. The law is due to go into effect on Dec 2nd and it covers all social media platforms with 50 million subscribers and up.
NetChoice and Computer & Communications Industry Association have sued to prevent the law from taking effect.
Since that case will be decided in court U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman in Austin will allow Texas to demand documents from social media platforms.
The platforms will now have to release those documents to Texas AG Ken Paxton. They will have to turn over all documents used to censor content or boot users from their sites. They will have a hard time justifying their censorship policy which up until now, they have been able to hide.
This will be very damaging especially where they claim they are following science, but the science does not agree such as COVID jabs for small children.
Texas will be able to demand these documents from groups including Twitter Inc., Alphabet Inc.’s Google, and Facebook Inc. They will also have to explain how those rules are enforced by far-left groups. This could prove to be embarrassing and will likely lead other states to institute similar laws.
The Texas law allows those affected by the policies to sue for damages, including punitive damages. Social media companies would be forced to hire thousands of lawyers to handle the cases.
The trade groups argue the statute will force social media platforms to host extremist content in violation of their terms of service. But, they will have to explain why they banned Donald Trump yet still allow the Taliban and other extremists to publish their violent content at will.
The ruling allows Paxton to seek documents and depose employees at members of NetChoice and Computer & Communications Industry Association — but only if they’ll be impacted by the law barring platforms from suspending users over their political views. The statute, which applies to social-media companies with more than 50 million monthly users, takes effect Dec. 2.
Texas Governor Greg Abbott and other Republicans criticized social-media companies for banning former President Donald Trump from their platforms after a mob of his supporters raided the Capitol on Jan. 6. A similar law in Florida targeting social-media companies after the bans was put on hold by a judge in a suit brought by the same trade groups.
