The Supreme Court has suspended the anti-Texas social media ‘censorship’ law

The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday suspended Texas law restricting the editorial flexibility of social networks, without addressing the tedious issue of calling for tougher content control supporters against policies that incite “censorship”.

Last September, the Texas governor passed a law banning social networks from banning users “based on their political views” in the name of “free speech”.

Although many governors and representatives of both political parties have used large platforms, US conservative elected officials regularly accuse Facebook, YouTube (Google) and Twitter of being biased in favor of “censorship” and Democrats.

The court challenged the new law, which was enacted by the Court of Appeal. But companies representing technology giants have filed a petition in the Supreme Court, which is tentatively pending a decision on the merits of the appellate court on Tuesday.

The companies are “claiming” that the new Texas law “interferes with the implementation of their + editorial judgment + and that this interference violates their right not to spread + speech arising from others,” Conservative judge Samuel Alito said in his statement.

“Under certain circumstances, we recognize the right of organizations to refuse to host the expression of others. But we rejected it under other circumstances, ”he thinks. “It is not clear whether these precedents, which predate the Internet age, apply to larger social networks.”

The two conflicting clans all claim freedom of expression, as defined by the First Amendment to the American Constitution, which prohibits government from censoring – but not companies.

Tensions between California groups and Republicans have escalated since Donald Trump was ousted from major platforms in early 2021, prompting a network of riots that attacked Congress in Washington on Jan. 6 and killed five people.

Facebook and its competitors have defended themselves from censorship and put forward rules aimed at promoting peaceful exchange, while many NGOs and Democrats have called for more stern opposition to hate speech.

“The Texas law threatens to undo the years of work done by activists around the world to get social media to take hate, harassment and misinformation seriously,” said the NGO Center for Democracy and Technology.

The Court of Appeals recently ruled that a similar law passed in Florida violates the First Amendment.