TEXAS — Texas’ new law designed to block social platforms from banning people based on political views has drawn a lawsuit.


What You Need To Know

  • Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Sept. 9 signed House Bill 20 into law. The law will punish social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook for alleged censorship of political viewpoints 

  • Although characterized as bipartisan, the legislation came after former President Trump was banned from the big social media platforms following the events of Jan. 6

  • A lawsuit from two tech industry groups is challenging the law

  • A lawsuit put the brakes on a similar social media law in Florida

Tech industry groups NetChoice and the Computer and Communications Industry in a suit filed Wednesday ague the law will prevent Twitter, Facebook and other platforms from stopping medical misinformation, hate speech, terrorist propaganda and other such language.

The law, signed by Gov. Greg Abbott earlier in September, prevents companies with more than 50 million monthly users from banning people based on political views. It further permits the state attorney general to sue on their behalf.

The law comes in the wake of former President Trump’s ban from the big social media platform following the events of Jan. 6 at the U.S. Capitol.

While there is no evidence that tech companies are biased against conservatives, the narrative has been popular with Republicans since before President Trump was elected and only grew louder throughout his term. Trump getting banned for life from Twitter and suspended from Facebook after inciting the Jan. 6 Capitol riots only reinforced it.

Conservatives such as Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, claim platforms such as Twitter target the right and violate their First Amendment rights.

“Big Tech’s efforts to silence conservative viewpoints is un-American, un-Texan and unacceptable and pretty soon it’s going to be against the law in the state of Texas,” Abbott said earlier this year.

Social media companies, however, have claimed that they don’t target conservatives and instead remove harmful speech that violates their terms of service.

The First Amendment protects people from censorship by the federal government rather than the private sector.

A similar bill was passed in Florida in May but it was temporarily blocked by a federal judge.

Abbott outlined his support for the law in an opinion piece published in the Washington Post on Wednesday.

“If a social media company can apply double standards based on someone’s position of power or influence, as in the case of Facebook, what is to stop it from censoring a mother from Beaumont for sharing her religious beliefs or a rancher from Amarillo supporting the Second Amendment? The answer is nothing — unless we fight back against Big Tech censorship and hold these companies accountable,” the governor wrote.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.