The U. S. Supreme Court The U. S. Department of Homeland Security has suspended a Texas law (opens in a new tab) that would particularly limit the ability of social media platforms to moderate content posted on their sites. The law, which went into effect in May, states that platforms with more than 50 million per month of active users “may not censor a user, a user’s expressions, or a user’s ability to obtain a person’s expression,” based on a person’s point of view, view, or geographic location.
The Texas law, HB20 (opens in a new tab), was passed in September 2021, but was blocked a few months later by a federal court on the grounds that it would likely violate the First Amendment. The Fifth Court of Appeals However, the circuit suspended that court order in May, allowing the law to take effect immediately. However, as reported via the Washington Post (opens in a new tab), the Supreme Court voted to suspend the law following an emergency request from Google, Facebook, Twitter and other tech industry heavyweights.
This is not the end of the battle. As the Post explained, Texas and Florida have legislation aimed at countering the tech industry’s alleged bias against “conservative” views, and if the regional appellate courts of others come up with other determinations of legality, simplistically, if Texas says the law is constitutional and Florida says it is not, then all of this may end up in the Supreme Court for a final decision. This is a procedure that can take a long time to complete completely.
It can also have a primary effect on how social media companies manage their platforms. Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton described social media platforms as “twenty-first century descendants of telegraph and phone companies” and said they therefore deserve to be treated as non-unusual carriers, necessarily in the same way as telephone corporations, which are legally prohibited from regulating or restricting access based on call content. Ironically, web service providers in the U. S. (opens in a new tab), however, that designation was removed through the FCC (opens in a new tab) in 2017.
However, tech corporations and lobbying groups warned that the moderation functions of social media platforms will lead to the proliferation of objectionable content, adding racism, calls for violence, and videos posted through terrorists and mass murderers.
“As we debate how to prevent further senseless acts of violence, Texas law would require social media to feature racist, hateful and extremist messages,” Progress House CEO Adam Kovacevich said in a new tab. “Legislation against content moderation is so actively destructive that our country’s supreme court has filed an emergency appeal to prevent this law from going into effect. “
For now, the Texas Fifth Circuit Court is still in the process of determining whether HB20, or a component of it, violates the First Amendment. However, one response to the Supreme Court could be the way it will eventually end: shortly after the injunction against Texas. The law was lifted in May, a Florida appeals court ruled otherwise (opens in a new tab), stating that content moderation and curation, including on major social media platforms, is a “constitutionally protected expression activity. “
Andy has been betting on PC from the beginning, starting out as a young guy with text adventures and primitive action games on a TRS80 cassette. From there, he graduated from the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose simulators, ran a local BBS, learned to build PCs, and developed a long-standing love of role-playing games, immersive sims, and shooting games. He began writing video game short stories in 2007 for The Escapist and managed to get fired until 2014, when he joined the mythical pc ranks. Gamer. Covers each and every facet of the industry, from new game announcements and release notes to legal litigation, Twitch oxen, esports and Henry Cavill. A lot of Henry Cavill.
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