A smartphone displays icons of social media Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Snapchat application. A federal appeals court has reinstated a Republican-backed Texas law that prohibits large social media companies from banning users over their political viewpoints.A federal appeals court has reinstated a Republican-backed Texas law that prohibits large social media companies from banning users over their political viewpoints.
The decision hands a win to Republicans who have long criticized social media platforms such as Twitter for what they call anti-conservative bias — disapproval that was amplified when President Donald Trump was banned from Twitter for violating the platform’s rules on inciting violence during the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol.
The order did not evaluate the law on its constitutionality but instead allows the law to go back into effect while the case proceeds in district court, according to afrom one of the plaintiff groups. The ruling came from a three-judge panel on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals — which is often considered the most conservative appeals court in the country — and was not accompanied by a written opinion explaining the decision at the time of publication.to block the law last fall.