Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said Facebook and Twitter are leading a “dangerous movement to silence conservative voices and religious freedoms” while backing a state bill Friday that would allow any Texan temporarily removed or banned from Facebook or Twitter to sue. social media companies to recover.
The bill, introduced earlier this week by Republican state senators, is the latest in more than a dozen efforts that have sprung up across the country in recent weeks, following a ban on the former President Donald Trump of the two social media platforms following the January 6 riot of the Capitol.
At a news conference in Tyler, Texas, Abbott argued that social media companies have an obligation under a 1996 federal law, known as section 230, to keep their platforms open and that violations of this law by Facebook, Twitter and others give Texas the right to impose its own state-specific regulations.
“The efforts of big tech to censor conservative views are not American and we will not allow it in the Lone Star state,” Abbott said.
Texas State Senator Bryan Hughes, who sponsored the bill and spoke with Abbott, said all the state wanted to do was protect the freedoms of its citizens. “We don’t allow a cable company to cut off your television because of your religion,” Hughes offered as a justification for the proposed law.
A Facebook spokesperson did not send any requests for comments from CBS MoneyWatch. In the past, Facebook and other social media companies said they have the right to control and ban users on their platforms when those users post speeches that promote violence.
Many technology and media experts agree. Industry group TechNet said in a statement that the Texas bill would have numerous unintended negative consequences, including exposing children to harmful content.
“Millions of digital content are posted every day that show child exploitation, harassment, harassment, pornography and spam,” TechNet said. “This bill not only recklessly encourages companies to leave unpleasant content in public view, but also creates a culture that supports frivolous lawsuits against American companies.”
Sharon Bradford Franklin, policy director at the think tank New America’s Open Technology Institute, said Abbott “doesn’t have a proper understanding” of federal regulations. In fact, he said Article 230 gives social media platforms and all websites the ability to decide which speech they want to host and which speech they want to remove.
While states can impose their own privacy laws on social media platforms, federal law prohibits them from enacting their own laws that monitor the content of the platforms, Franklin added. “If a law needs to be changed, Texas can’t do it alone,” he said. “I’m sure any court would consider that a state-approved law is not allowed to regulate the content of social media platforms.”
Conservatives have long claimed that they are censored on social media websites, although there is little independent evidence to back it up. A study published last month by New York University found no reliable support for the claim that conservatives are regularly blacklisted on major social media websites.
Still, conservative censorship complaints have intensified since Facebook, Twitter and others tried to limit calls to violence in the wake of the January 6 Capitol riot. This year alone, Republican lawmakers from 20 states have introduced bills that would allow their citizens to sue social media companies if they are “deformed,” according to David Horowitz of the Media Coalition, a nonprofit organization focused on issues of First Amendment.
While states are trying to claim that Facebook should be regulated as a public square, in which all discourse is protected, Horowitz believes it will be difficult for these states to pass this level of regulation on their own. The biggest hurdle: The Internet works through state lines. Any new regulations imposed on Facebook in one state, for example, would affect the company in another. “There is no way Texas will guarantee that its rules will govern only Texans,” Horowitz said.
In addition, Horowitz said, the courts have long confirmed that business owners also have their First Amendment freedom of expression rights. “If a bookstore doesn’t want to sell a book, the government can’t force it to do so,” Horowitz said. “I think social media platforms have the same rights.”