A US appeals court on Friday ruled in favor of a Texas law targeting social media giants like Facebook and Twitter, in a victory for Republicans who accuse the platforms of censoring conservative speech. But the decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans is unlikely to be the last word in a legal battle that has stakes beyond Texas and could affect how some of the world’s biggest tech companies regulate the content from their users. The Texas law, signed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott last year, has been challenged by tech trade groups that warn it would prevent platforms from removing extremism and hate speech. A similar law was also passed in Florida and was ruled unconstitutional by a separate appeals court. The latest reason is likely to come from the US Supreme Court, which earlier this year blocked the Texas law while the lawsuit was pending. “Today we reject the notion that corporations have a free First Amendment right to censor what people say,” wrote US District Court Judge Andrew Oldham. NetChoice, one of the groups challenging the law, expressed its disappointment in a statement that pointed out that the decision was the opposite of the decision reached in the lawsuit over the Florida law. “We are confident that when the US Supreme Court hears one of our cases, it will uphold the First Amendment rights of websites, platforms and apps,” said Carl Szabo, vice president and general counsel of NetChoice. Republican elected officials in several states have supported laws like those enacted in Florida and Texas that sought to portray social media companies as generally liberal in outlook and hostile to ideas outside that perspective, especially from the political right. Justice Samuel Alito wrote in May that it is unclear how the high court’s previous First Amendment cases, many of which predate the Internet age, apply to Facebook, Twitter, TikTok and other digital platforms. The Florida law, as enacted, would have given Florida’s attorney general the power to sue companies under the state’s Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. It will also allow individual residents to sue social media companies for up to $100,000 if they feel they have been treated unfairly. The Texas law only applies to the largest social media platforms that have more than 50,000 active users.
