Texas law that stops social sites from moderating is on hold

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The Supreme Court has blocked a new, controversial law in Texas that required Facebook and other social platforms to halt the moderation of posts from individuals on the platform. The temporary ban is in place as an underlying case proceeds in lower courts.

The law in question was passed by Texas Governor Greg Abbot back in September of last year. It comes from Republican lawmakers.

Those lawmakers claim that social platforms like Facebook and Twitter have a tendency to de-platform and block conservative content (they don’t, by the way).

But the law is on a temporary hold thanks to a 5-4 vote from the Supreme Court. That ban will remain in effect while the law goes through a constitutionality check in the lower federal courts.

“It is not at all obvious how our existing precedents, which predate the age of the internet, should apply to large social media companies, but Texas argues that its law is permissible under our case law,” reads part of a dissent from Associate Justice Samuel Alito.

The case currently in progress in lower federal courts comes from a couple of tech groups that represent social media platforms. According to Bloomberg, the groups claim that Texas’s new law is unconstitutional.

On top of that, the groups say that it would bring tons of hateful speech from hate groups. Matt Schruers is president of the Computer & Communications Industry Association, one of the groups representing the social platforms.

He says the Supreme Court halt will let “private American companies have an opportunity to be heard in court before they are forced to disseminate vile, abusive, or extremist content under this Texas law.”

Of course, this is just the beginning of this saga. The case is currently making its way through lower federal courts. And we know how these things can take time.

While the Supreme Court ban is temporary, it could last for a while depending on how long the underlying case takes.

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