Texas Governor Greg Abbott yesterday signed a ban on social media "censorship" into law, imposing new restrictions on tech companies that are certain to spark a court battle similar to one happening in Florida.
Industry groups slammed the newly enacted legislation as "unconstitutional." The law "seeks to punish social media companies for following policies that protect Internet users from dangerous content online," according to the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA).
The CCIA previously sued Florida to block a state law that would have made it illegal for social media companies to ban politicians. US District Judge Robert Hinkle sided with the tech industry in June, granting a preliminary injunction that blocks the law because it violates the First Amendment rights of companies that moderate user content on their online platforms.
“Unconstitutional and dangerous”
NetChoice, which sued Florida along with the CCIA, called the Texas law "unconstitutional and dangerous."
"This bill abandons conservative values, violates the First Amendment, and forces websites to host obscene, antisemitic, racist, hateful, and otherwise awful content... By empowering the government to control online speech, HB 20 clearly violates the First Amendment," NetChoice President Steve DelBianco said. "This law essentially creates a new Fairness Doctrine for the Internet which will only make it harder for conservatives to share their news and views online."
The law only lets...
Read Full Story: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2021/09/texas-bans-online-censorship-with-law-similar-to-one-already-blocked-in-florida/
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