Texas governor signs bill banning social media companies with 50M+ MAUs from blocking or restricting people or their content based on their viewpoint
The law is an escalation of a conservative critique of Silicon Valley and will likely to face legal challenges from the industry
Washington PostCat Zakrzewski
Context & Ripple Effects
The signing follows the Texas Senate's earlier passage of the 50M-user viewpoint-moderation bill, moving the dispute from legislative debate into platform operations and court review. Related coverage identifies Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter as represented in the industry's subsequent challenge.
The case became a test of whether Texas could dictate large platforms' moderation rules: a federal judge initially blocked the law on First Amendment grounds, while a later appeals-court ruling allowed enforcement to proceed.
First-order effects
Social media services above the 50M-user threshold face a Texas restriction on removing or limiting users and content on the basis of viewpoint, directly constraining the scope of their moderation policies in the state.
Industry groups representing Facebook, YouTube, and Twitter moved to challenge the law, creating an immediate legal front over the platforms' claimed First Amendment rights.
Second-order effects
The conflicting court outcomes make enforcement status—not merely the statutory text—a central operating variable for the affected platforms' Texas moderation decisions.
Texas residents gained a route to contest politically motivated platform bans under the law, shifting disputes that platforms previously resolved internally toward litigation.
Third-order effects
Texas's later age-assurance and parental account-deletion measures indicate a broader state-level effort to govern both platform content practices and access rules.
If courts continue to permit such laws, large platforms will face a more state-by-state model of platform governance rather than relying on uniform moderation policies.
The trend: Texas is becoming a prominent venue for state rules that reshape how large social platforms govern speech and user access.
We will always defend freedom of speech in Texas, which is why House Bill 20 is now LAW in the Lone Star State. This law will protect Texans from wrongful social media censorship. @SenBryanHughes @BriscoeCain #txlege https://gov.texas.gov/...
This will almost certainly meet the same fate as a similar law passed in Florida, which a federal judge blocked in June. Even if Section 230 didn't preempt state efforts like this (it does), most jurists believe these bills violate the First Amendment rights of tech platforms. ht…
The laughable and arbitrary targeting of private social media companies that don't pander to conspiracy theorists and xenophobes masquerading as so-called “conservatives” will not pass muster with any court in the land— except on @foxnews, @newsmax, @oann https://www.techmeme.com…
Moving from the Bay Area to a place that lickety split restricts voting, basically bans abortion, and tells companies what to publish - that's got to be a trip. https://twitter.com/...
This dumb Texas law is predicated on social media companies being “common carriers” which is hilarious because AT&T, which fights tooth and nail against being regulated as such, is headquartered in... Dallas. https://www.theverge.com/... https://twitter.com/...
Announcing on Twitter that people should watch you live on Facebook, as you sign a blatantly unconstitutional bill denying both of those companies their 1st Amendment rights is... a decision. https://twitter.com/...
As always, congratulations to the real winners: Social media platforms, which will be allowed to recoup their hefty outside counsel fees from Texas taxpayers when a judge chucks this law 18 to 24 months from now. https://twitter.com/...
In further proof that Texas is run by morons, the governor has signed an obviously unconstitutional bill (reminder, the First Amendment bans the government from forcing you to publish my speech) that would require many social-media sites to keep Nazis instead of kicking them off.…
@mmasnick Wouldn't it be amazing if Facebook blocked the livestream of the social media censorship bill? They don't have that kind of sense of humor but still...it would be great if they did.
1st Amendment applies to gov't, not individuals or corporations, stating it “shall make no law...abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press.” Freedom of speech includes the freedom to block any content on your private platform. This TX law itself is clearly unconstitutional…