Two tech industry groups have petitioned the Supreme Court to review a Texas law prohibiting social media companies from censoring users based on political affiliation.
In Thursday's brief, the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) and NetChoice made their case for reconsidering the law, which a district court initially blocked before being overturned by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals.
The CCIA and NetChoice represent companies including Facebook, Twitter, Google, and TikTok in Washington, D.C. And just a day prior, NetChoice announced it would sue California for a law requiring online services to provide new safeguards for minors.
Texas HB 20 "infringes the core First Amendment rights of Petitioners' members by denying them editorial control over their own websites, while forcing them to publish speech they do not wish to disseminate," the brief argued.
NetChoice counsel Chris Marchese said the group was "confident" the Supreme Court would conclude that "the government may not force private businesses to disseminate vile content or overrule their private editorial decisions."
"No government should be in the business of controlling online communities or the speech they produce," he continued. "Yet that is exactly what Texas has tried to do with HB 20 and what the Supreme Court should reject."
The two groups stressed that the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals already held over the summer that "websites, platforms, and apps have First Amendment rights," specifically the right to content moderation within its editorial discretion.
"This case, involving a key constitutional issue and split appellate court decisions, calls for Supreme Court oversight," CCIA President Matt Schruers stated.
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