Supreme Court Votes 5-4 in Bizarre Alliance to Block Texas Bill Banning Social Media Content Moderation
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The U.S. Supreme Court voted 5-4 Tuesday to temporarily shoot down a Texas law that would have significantly hindered the ability of social media platforms to moderate content.
In a peculiar alliance, Justices Amy Coney Barrett, Stephen Breyer, Brett Kavanaugh, John Roberts, and Sonia Sotomayor joined forces to block Texas House Bill 20.
Justices Samuel Alito, Neil Gorsuch, Elena Kagan, and Clarence Thomas dissented.
HB 20 vowed to protect “Texans from wrongful censorship on social media platforms.” It was signed into law by Gov. Greg Abbott (R-TX) last September.
Abbott said at the time:
Social media websites have become our modern-day public square. They are a place for healthy public debate where information should be able to flow freely — but there is a dangerous movement by social media companies to silence conservative viewpoints and ideas. That is wrong, and we will not allow it in Texas.
Opponents argued the law, if applied to large platforms, would have forced them to allow hate speech, illegal content, dangerous rhetoric, and trends that put children in danger — such as the Tide Pod challenge.
NBC News reported a challenge to HB 20 was filed by the trade groups NetChoice and the Computer and Communications Industry Association.
An injunction to block the law was issued by a federal judge, but was later lifted by the U.S. Court of the Appeals for the Fifth Circuit.
Alito issued a dissenting opinion from the court minority.
Texas lawmakers authored HB 20 last year amid complaints social media companies were censoring conservatives. A press release from Abbott’s office read:
House Bill 20 prevents social media companies with more than 50 million monthly users banning users simply based on their political viewpoints. The law also requires several consumer protection disclosures and processes related to content management on the social media sites to which the bill applies.
These sites must disclose their content management and moderation policies and implement a complaint and appeals process for content they remove, providing a reason for the removal and a review of their decision. They also must review and remove illegal content within 48 hours. House Bill 20 also prohibits email service providers from impeding the transmission of email messages based on content.
