Big Tech suffers a MASSIVE loss in the 5th circuit court of appeals

The stranglehold social media giants like Twitter hold over 1st amendment rights may be loosening as 5th circuit court upholds Texas bill HB20

Texas bill HB20 is a law that was passed in the fall of 2021 that imposes common sense limitations on the powers that social media platforms have to limit speech. It also limits the ability for social media platforms to be able to label posts with obtrusive warnings and fact-checks that are often wrong to begin with. Well, there’s some good news on that front.

The 5th circuit court of appeals handed down an opinion that upholds Texas bill HB20, which prevents social media platforms from engaging in partisan speech discrimination based on viewpoint, political affiliation, etc. This matter will undoubtedly be headed for the Supreme Court. And, the best part: if the Supreme Court upholds this law’s validity? Nationwide legal precedent will be set to allow for a severe crackdown on the curtailing of free speech on platforms like Twitter, Facebook, etc. by giving carte blanche to other state-level legislatures to pass similar laws in their own states. I don’t see one getting passed on the federal level unless we have a true upending of the current power structure trying to usher in a totalitarian regime, but this is a step in the right direction. Plus, if enough states inhibited Big Tech’s censorship practices they would have to just do away with such policies anyway, otherwise they would have to operate differently in every single state, lest they open themselves up for lawsuits. So that might just be a way around inaction by federal level legislators who benefit from the current system.

This is a huge loss for platforms like Twitter, who recently had to allow Alex Berenson back on their platform after he successfully sued them for wrongful termination of his account due to what the platform called ‘covid-19 misinformation’. Given no choice in the matter, Twitter lifted his ban, but still keeps his account shadowbanned to this day. Shadowbanning, for those who don’t know, is the act of a platform to limit where your account shows up in searches, newsfeeds, etc. They hinder your account’s reach and inhibit new users from discovering your account at all.

In the opinion that was handed down, it is understood that freedom of speech protects a citizen’s rights to speak, or publish, any opinions he or she may have, “…particularly on matters of public concern,” That, to me, says you can’t just hand down a ban because someone said something inconvenient to your favorite politician.

Big Tech’s argument against such an assessment is that the First Amendment, because they host and transmit speech, grants them unilateral authority to censor any speech they wish to censor for any reason, or no reason at all. The left, in the greatest political about-face in history, naturally agrees with this because it effectively allows them to circumvent the 1st amendment almost entirely without directly doing so because, “A private company can do as they please.” Gee, it’s interesting how the left had no interest in deregulation until it became politically expedient for them to do so. But if all goes to plan, this feeble excuse will no longer exist.

The issue surrounding Big Tech’s censorship has also been the greatest issue with section 230, which puts the right in writing for Big Tech’s benefit under the guise of absolving them of liability for the content that is carried on their platforms. This has had a drastic consequence. You’re more likely to get banned from Twitter for posting something Pro-Trump than you are if you post child porn. In fact, Twitter has reportedly refused to remove child porn in the past.

As is written in the court’s opinion, “We reject the Platforms' attempt to extract a freewheeeling censorship right from the Constitution's free speech guarantee. The Platforms are not newspapers. Their censorship is not speech." Bravo.

Again, this is but a battle that has been won, the war is still raging on. I would like to think all our problems will go away but we battle a determined enemy here. The erosion of freedom for the sake of authoritarian ideals is something of which we must be constantly wary. The price of freedom is eternal vigilance, after all.

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