Tech firms ask U.S. Supreme Court to block Texas social media law
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Lobbying teams representing Fb, Twitter, Google and different tech firms filed an emergency request with the U.S. Supreme Court docket on Friday, looking for to dam a Texas regulation that prohibits massive social media platforms from banning customers primarily based on their political opinions.
The Texas regulation went into impact on Wednesday when the fifth U.S. Circuit Court docket of Appeals granted the state’s request for a keep of a district choose’s injunction blocking the regulation.
The regulation forbids social media firms with greater than 50 million lively customers monthly from banning members primarily based on their political opinions and requires them to publicly disclose how they average content material.
It was signed into regulation by Texas Governor Greg Abbott, a Republican, in September.
Web lobbying teams NetChoice and the Laptop & Communications Business Affiliation filed a lawsuit towards the measure, and U.S. District Choose Robert Pitman in Austin, Texas, issued a preliminary injunction in December.
Pitman had discovered that the regulation would hurt social media firms’ free speech rights beneath the First Modification of the U.S. Structure.
The tech teams, of their emergency request, requested the Supreme Court docket to “permit the District Court docket’s cautious reasoning to stay in impact whereas an orderly appellate course of performs out.”
(Reporting by Eric Beech; Enhancing by William Mallard)
