Justices Roberts, Kavanaugh, Barrett help halt enforcement of HB 20
The US Supreme Court on Tuesday reinstated the suspension of Texas’ social-media law HB 20 while litigation to have the legislation declared unconstitutional continues. The law, signed in September by Texas Governor Greg Abbott (R), and promptly opposed, forbids large social media companies from moderating lawful content based on a « viewpoint », such as « smoking cures cancer » or « vaccines are poison » or hateful theories of racial superiority. Its ostensible purpose is to prevent internet giants from discriminating against conservative social media posts, something that studies indicate is not happening. Those fighting the law – industry groups and advocacy organizations – say the rules would require large social media services such as Facebook and Twitter to distribute « lawful but awful » content – hate speech, misinformation, and other dubious material. They argue companies have a First Amendment right to exercise editorial discretion for the content distributed on their platforms. Earlier this month, the US Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals vacated a preliminary injunction put in place last year by a district court hearing a challenge brought by tech trade groups NetChoice and CCIA against HB 20.
