In Texas, a law, HB20, putting restrictions on social media giants, was upheld by a federal appeals court in Texas on Wednesday. 

The law, which previously had been blocked, restricts monitoring content on platforms like Facebook, YouTube and Twitter. It will also affect email, apps, feeds like Reddit, and other social media companies. 

Decisions about content that are typically made by the platforms can now be challenged. Texans can sue the social media companies if their posts and media content are removed, blocked or made inaccessible to viewers. This will allow the user to say and post just about anything the user wants, and you are more likely to see it, whether you want to or not. 

The ruling on HB 20 will allow the Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton’s office, or residents of Texas, to sue social networks that moderate content based on “the viewpoint of the user or another person.”

The litigations that will ensue will cost the social media big guys tons of cash and opens them up to legal risks. 

Quite a Pandora’s box!

With no discrimination about who posts and what is posted, how will the social platforms operate in an environment that is already a free-for-all circus, with people posting vulgar and violent media clips, and we all know about the nasty dialogues that ruin (or titillate) viewers while sipping their morning coffee or tea. Will we see an even more erratic social media Wild-Wild-West?Specifically, in the words of the new law, it will make it illegal for a social media platform with more than 50 million monthly users in the US to “block, ban, remove, deplatform, demonetize, de-boost, restrict, deny equal access or visibility to, or otherwise discriminate against expression.”

The law, which applies only to Texas at the current time, was conceived due to the perceived discrimination against conservatives and those on the right that their voices weren’t being heard. (Think about Donald Trump’s ban from Twitter). 

The court’s ruling may be the first step in what could be a tug of war about First Amendment (free speech) rights, not only on social media, but potentially in other areas on the internet and off the internet as well. The possibilities are endless.

The law in Texas was originally blocked by a district court judge in December 2020, because he said it was unconstitutional under the First Amendment. The law was also blocked in Florida. 

But this week, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals in Texas overturned the lower court’s decision. 

A spokesperson for Texas Governor Greg Abbott, Renae Eze,  said the governor focused on HB20, “Because allowing biased social media companies to cancel conservative speakers erodes America’s free speech foundations.”

Texas Attorney General Paxton’s office tweeted, “My office just secured another BIG WIN against BIG TECH,”

Experts predict the fallout from this decision will be huge. 

Currently, tech companies use algorithmic content filtering and ranking which determines what content is seen by a particular user. Changing this method has ramifications for not only what content is viewed, but for behind-the-scenes advertising revenue, data collection, privacy and more. 

Social media would not be allowed to monitor, downgrade or remove hate speech, spam or porn? Some might find that appealing. But many users are not looking for drama and gore when they view their mobile phones several times a day. 

Chaos. For users, platforms and the advertising industry as well. 

And what about the tech companies, bogged down in legal messes constantly, having to fight the same battles over and over? Currently, they can depend on Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which allows internet platforms to moderate content as they see fit and shields companies like Twitter and Facebook legally.

Will Twitter, Facebook, YouTube and others just say, “We’re getting out of Texas?” Will that create more legal battles over discrimination? 

The future of the law is hard to predict. It will be appealed, and the matter could end up in the Supreme Court. 

As Dorothy said in the 1939 movie, The Wizard of Oz, “Toto, I’ve a feeling we’re not in Kansas anymore.”