A Texas law that would bar social media companies from cracking down on hate speech and misinformation was temporarily blocked Tuesday in a rare 5-4 Supreme Court ruling.
Justices John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen Breyer ruled in favor of tech industry groups seeking to block the law, with Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Elena Kagan dissenting.
The decision is a victory for tech groups rejecting laws coming from Republican-controlled state legislatures that seek to put barriers on the ability of social media companies to moderate content.
A case on the law itself may end up before the Supreme Court again as it progresses through the challenges in the lower courts. But Tuesday’s ruling means the law, which critics say could lead to a more dangerous internet, will remain blocked for now in Texas, reversing an appeals court decision earlier this month.
In Alito’s dissenting opinion, he said he has not “formed a definitive opinion on the novel legal issues arising from Texas’ decision to address perceived ‘changing social and economic’ conditions.”
“But precisely because of that, I don’t feel comfortable intervening at this point in the process. While I can understand the Court’s apparent desire to delay enforcement of HB20 while the appeal is pending, the preliminary injunction issued by the District Court was itself a significant intrusion on state sovereignty, and should not be required to Texas to seek prior authorization from the federal courts before its laws take effect,” he added.
The law prohibits social media companies with more than 50 million monthly users from banning users based on their political views.
It comes amid a push by Republicans to accuse social media companies of censoring content with an anti-conservative bias, inflamed by the platforms’ decision to suspend former President Trump following the attack on Capitol Hill on Jan. 2021.
A similar law in Florida was blocked last week by an appeals court that also sided with tech industry groups on the matter.
The Texas law had also been blocked since Republican Gov. Greg Abbott signed it into law in September until an appeals court decision earlier this month lifted the ban.
Matt Schruers, president of the Computer and Communications Industry Association, which is one of two industry groups suing the Texas law, said the court’s ruling “encourages” him to block the law while it remains under consideration.
“This ruling means private US companies will have a chance to be heard in court before being forced to spread vile, abusive or extremist content under this Texas law. We appreciate the Supreme Court ensuring that First Amendment protections, including the right not to be coerced to speak, will be upheld during the legal challenge of the Texas social media law,” he said.
—Updated at 5:23 pm
Reference-thehill.com