Flying under the radar in these crazy times was Texas State House Bill 20, which gives Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton broad power to force social media providers to censor virtually anything he determines is “unlawful.” “What content would be “unlawful’?” you properly ask. Well, HB 20 doesn’t say; it just give the state Attorney General the ability to sue social media platforms for up to $25,000 per day if the whatever that unlawful message isn’t removed.
The law, just upheld by a three judge panel in the US Fifth Circuit of Appeals (with a Reagan-appointee and a Trump-appointee voting for it, and a GHW Bush-appointee dissenting), will go into effect immediately with no clear guidance on what Paxton is allowed to censor.
Confusingly, the law also demands that social media companies may not censor “a user, a user’s expression, or a user’s ability to receive the expression of another person based on . . . the viewpoint of the user or another person.” Except, apparently, if that person is Ken Paxton, because there will be no court trial for what is legal or illegal content. There is only Paxton.