Across the Atlantic, an appeals court has validated a law that prohibits social networks from suspending or censoring users based on their “ point of view “, whatever.
The text was adopted in 2021 in the very conservative state of Texas. It has since been suspended after tech giants challenged it.
Social media is waging war on conservatives, Texas policymakers say
According to this law, social networks with more than 50 million monthly active users do not have the right to censor their users according to the content they post, considered as a simple point of view. Going directly against the many moderation efforts put in place by the platforms to prevent hateful content or misinformation, the text goes in the direction of the comments of the conservatives for several years, who believe that the actors of Silicon Valley do widely promoting so-called progressive ideas by censoring their own. In fact, Texas policymakers cited the suspension of Donald Trump’s account by Twitter to justify their legislation.
NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association, a group representing Meta, Twitter and Google, among others, appealed to prevent the implementation of the law, arguing in particular that they must have the right to regulate content when they believe it can lead to violence. They further expressed concern that unregulated platforms could allow extremists such as supporters of Nazism, terrorists and hostile foreign governments to operate.
Ultimately, the Fifth Federal Court of Appeals, based in New Orleans, agreed with the State of Texas: Today, we reject the idea that corporations have a freewheeling First Amendment right to censor what people say. wrote Judge Andrew Oldham, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, in the verdict.
The case is not over
Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton called the decision ” massive victory for the constitution and free speech “. Nevertheless, the case is not yet won for the Republicans. Indeed, a similar law was voted in Florida and, in the same way, it is a federal court of appeals which had to rule on its validity or not after the big tech have appealed.
This time the 11e Court of Appeals, located in Atlanta, Georgia, ruled that most of the text violated the companies’ free speech rights, and therefore could not be enforced. The fact that these decisions run counter to each other should cause tech companies to defer to the US Supreme Court. It should all the same be taken into account that the majority of the members of the judiciary are Republicans.
Source : Reuters
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