Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up Sept 16 (Reuters) – A U.S. appeals court on Friday upheld a Texas law that bars major social media companies from banning or censoring users based on “opinion”, a setback for tech industry groups that say the measure would turn platforms into bastions of dangerous content. The largely 2-1 decision by the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, based in New Orleans, gives the U.S. Supreme Court the chance to rule on the law, which conservative and right-wing commentators said is necessary to prevent “Big Tech” from suppressing their views. “Today we reject the notion that corporations have a free First Amendment right to censor what people say,” Judge Andrew Oldham, an appointee of former President Donald Trump, wrote in the decision. Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up The Texas law was passed by the state’s Republican-led legislature and signed by its Republican governor. Tech groups that challenged the law and were on the losing end of Friday’s ruling include NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association, which counts Facebook, Twitter ( TWTR.N ) and Alphabet Inc ( GOOGL ) of Meta Platforms ( META.O). IE) YouTube as members. They have sought to retain rights to regulate user content when they believe it may lead to violence, citing concerns that unregulated platforms will enable extremists such as Nazi sympathizers, terrorists and hostile foreign governments. The association said on Friday that it opposes forcing private companies to be treated equally in all respects. “‘God Bless America’ and ‘Death to America’ are both opinions, and it is unreasonable and unconstitutional for the state of Texas to compel a private business to treat them the same,” she said in a statement. Some conservatives have called the social media companies’ practices abusive, pointing to Twitter’s permanent suspension of Trump from the platform shortly after the January 6, 2021 attack on the US Capitol by a mob of his supporters. Twitter had cited “the risk of further inciting violence” as the reason. The Texas law prohibits social media companies with at least 50 million monthly active users from acting to “censor” users based on “opinion” and allows either users or the Texas attorney general to sue to enforce the law . Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton hailed the decision on Twitter as a “massive victory for the Constitution and free speech.” Because the 5th Circuit decision conflicts with part of an 11th Circuit decision, aggrieved parties have a stronger case to petition the Supreme Court to hear the matter. In May, the Atlanta-based 11th Circuit found that most of a similar Florida law violates the companies’ free speech rights and cannot be enforced. read more Sign up now for FREE unlimited access to Reuters.comSign up Report by Daniel Trotta. Edited by Alexia Garamfalvi and Leslie Adler Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.
