Backed by Donald Trump’s reposting followers, the controversial Texas social media law that was suspended in December has been reinstated by an appeals court decision, barring platforms from blocking or banning users based on their ‘viewpoints’.
The governor of the US state, Greg Abbott, enacted the law last September amid protests from those who deemed it necessary for platforms to intervene to prevent the circulation of content containing hate speech, conspiracy theories or misinformation about COVID-19. Most outlawed in the US, including the ex-president.
Now, the 5th U.S. Court of Appeals has reinstated the law, although its merits have yet to be decided. The court is often touted as the country’s most conservative appellate court, according to the newspaper. Texas Tribune.
Texas social media law delights Trump supporters
Texas law has the backing of Republican politicians who accuse social networks like Twitter and Facebook of having an “anti-conservative bias” and censoring them.
The biggest victim of this bias will be Donald Trump, who was excluded from mainstream networks last January for his posts inciting the Capitol invaders.
Other politicians associated with him also lost their accounts or were temporarily suspended.
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The regulation is tailored for Big Technologies, as it applies to companies with more than 50 million monthly active users in the US. And it requires platforms to account for illegal or potentially policy-violating content.
The text also provides for the establishment of a complaints system where citizens can appeal content removal decisions they consider unfair.
When Governor Abbott signed into law in 2021, he said: “It has now become law in Texas that conservative views cannot be banned on social media.”
One of the conservative slogans in the US is to claim that social media companies censor people based on their political leanings. The companies deny these allegations.
After the law was signed by the state’s governor in September, two business groups representing Google and Twitter, among other platforms, went to court to overturn the law.
In December, a federal district court ruled in favor of social media and blocked the law during a US First Amendment lawsuit, which was used as an argument to give companies the right to moderate content.
Backlash came from Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton, who appealed the decision and won another victory.
The constitutionality of the law was not evaluated in the decision made last week. The court authorized it to be re-enacted even as the process continued.
Groups representing the platforms filed a lawsuit in the Supreme Court for the law to be blocked again while the case was pending.
Chris Marchese, a lawyer from the NetChoice trading group that represents some platforms, criticized the appeals court’s reinstatement of the legislation.
“HB 20 is an attack on the First Amendment and is constitutionally rotten from top to bottom.
We will of course object to this unprecedented, incomprehensible and unfortunate decision. [tomada] by a panel divided into 2 [votos favoráveis] to 1.”
The governor congratulated the decision that brought back the law, which was seen by him as a victory for freedom of expression.
A big win for freedom of speech in Texas.
I signed a law prohibiting social media outlets from canceling or censoring conservative speech.
A federal appeals court has allowed Texas freedom of speech law to go into effect for now.https://t.co/MXCbKfBxAR
— Greg Abbott (@GregAbbott_TX) 12 May 2022
Texas Social Media Law looks like Elon Musk
The move comes at a time when billionaire Elon Musk is in the process of buying Twitter. marks big changes networkespecially in terms of less moderation and more freedom for extreme views.
The Republican-backed Texas law is in the South African billionaire’s style as it seeks to hold social media platforms accountable for removing content that allegedly harms freedom of expression.
Musk frequently criticizes Twitter’s moderation rules and even “pauses” the acquisition deal to clarify the real numbers of fake accounts active on the social network.
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In recent statements, he criticized the head of the company’s legal department in a post citing a lawsuit. New York Post. In 2020, the platform blocked the sharing of a vehicle story For containing footage of hacked material along with personal and private information about President Joe Biden’s son, Hunter.
“Suspending a major news organization’s Twitter account for publishing a true story was absolutely incredibly inappropriate,” the billionaire wrote.
Close to Trump, as well as the former president’s social network, Truth Social, it only exists because “Twitter censors free speech” – another indication that moderation rules for users need to change under his rule.
Despite being reinstated, Texas law is controversial and should take some time to actually take effect. And if it does, it risks setting a dangerous legal precedent that supports Musk’s future actions on Twitter.
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source: Noticias
