July 11, Tom Leatherbury, director of the First Amendment Clinic at the SMU Dallas Dedman School of Law, for a piece decrying unconstitutional legislation in Texas and other states that attempts to regulate social media platforms, which are private companies. Published in the Dallas Morning News under the heading Texas’ social media censorship bill pushes unconstitutional limits on free speech: https://bit.ly/3hAqHdE
Amid ongoing allegations that social media platforms are censoring conservatives, regulating Big Tech has become one of the hottest issues across the country. In Texas, Gov. Greg Abbott has called a special legislative session in part to debate and pass content moderation legislation.
The legislation contemplated would be similar to Senate Bill 12, which died at the last minute during the recent legislative session. As proposed, it would prohibit social media companies from blocking users based on their viewpoints or their locations within Texas and impose attorneys’ fees on those companies that do. Unfortunately, this proposed legislation does more to harm free expression in Texas than it does to protect it.
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