?Radical? ruling lets Texas ban social media moderation based on ?viewpoint?

A federal appeals court has reinstated a Texas state law that bans "censorship" on social media platforms such as Facebook and Twitter, allowing Texas to enforce the law while litigation continues.A US District Court judge had granted a preliminary injunction blocking the law in December, ruling that it violates the social networks' First Amendment right to moderate user-submitted content. No one—not lawyers, not judges, not experts in the field, not even the law's own sponsors—knows what compliance with this law looks like," Barthold said.In a tweet, Paxton called the ruling a "BIG WIN against BIG TECH," adding, "I look forward to continuing to defend the constitutionality of HB 20." The state law says that a "social media platform may not censor a user" based on the user's "viewpoint" and defines "censor" as "block, ban, remove, deplatform, demonetize, de-boost, restrict, deny equal access or visibility to, or otherwise discriminate against expression." The Texas attorney general or users can sue social media platforms that violate this ban and win injunctive relief and reimbursement of court costs, the law says. Amazon, eBay, Facebook, Google, Twitter, and Yahoo are all members of both groups.At another point in the hearing, "Judge Andrew Oldham suggested that if the tech platforms succeeded, it would allow phone companies to kick off users," Protocol reported.