A Texas law prohibiting social media companies from censoring or banning users for their political speech can take effect, a federal court ruled last week. The decision is unlikely to finally resolve the issue but is being counted as a victory for conservatives who have fought to secure free speech against Big Tech censorship.
In a Friday ruling, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth District declared that Texas’ law, known as House Bill 20, was not unconstitutional after NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association filed a lawsuit challenging the legislation last year.
“Today we reject the idea that corporations have a freewheeling First Amendment right to censor what people say,” U.S. Circuit Court Judge Andrew Oldham stated in the opinion.
The court’s decision vacated a lower court’s preliminary injunction stalling enforcement of the law, finally allowing Texas to implement its anti-censorship legislation.