Abbott Slaps Standard Freedom Tag
on Texas Bid to Control Social Media

Capitol Inside
September 10, 2021

Governor Greg Abbott signed a ban on social media censorship into law on Thursday in an act that represents an unprededented interference by state government into the private business sector.

As the Justice Department sued Texas over an abortion ban that President Joe Biden branded as un-American, Abbott touted the new law with the exact same argument that the major technology companies that it targets will be using against the measure in an attempt to have it killed in the courts.

The nation's social media titans like Facebook, Twitter, Google and YouTube are portraying the new Texas law as a blatant violation of their constitutional rights under the First Amendment.

"We will always defend the freedom of speech in Texas, which is why I am proud to sign House Bill 20 into law to protect first amendment rights in the Lone Star State," Abbott said in an email tonight. "Social media websites have become our modern-day public square. They are a place for healthy public debate where information should be able to flow freely — but there is a dangerous movement by social media companies to silence conservative viewpoints and ideas. That is wrong, and we will not allow it in Texas."

The new Texas law is tantatmount to a hostile takeover by the state and probably has no hope to survive a legal challenge as a consequence. The technology firms are confident they will prevail in the judicial system in the fight against the Texas like they have so far in Florida where the courts have blocked a measure that Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed in May.

The new laws are contributions by Abbott and DeSantis to the culture war that Donald Trump triggered as the most divisive president in American history. The Texas and Florida have modeled their agendas this year on the failed strategy that Donald Trump employed en route to his ouster by Biden in November.

Abbott hasn't been concerned about the potential damage that he and Republican state lawmakers are doing to themselves in the surburbs and border areas where all the growth in Texas. With former Texas Senate Republican Don Huffines and ex-state GOP Chairman Allen West running hard to the right as gubernatorial primary challengers, Abbott has appeared increasingly desperate as though he fears he may be ousted in a potential runoff in March.

Abbott, however, will probably see it as a victory if the news social media censorship law is declared unconstitutional as expected based on his recent behavior. The governor has been grasping for attention that DeSantis has been soaking up as the frontrunner for the presidential nomination in 2024 if Trump isn't running again himself. That was evident on Wednesday when Abbott pledged to eliminate rapists from the streets in Texas.

The governor's claims on defending free speech are false in light of a GOP summer agenda that imposes restrictions on the freedom that the public schools have to teach the truth about race and slavery and to protect their students and staffs from a record-crushing COVID-19 wave that Abbott has refused to fight since Biden branded him as neanderthal for the repeal of a state mask mandate in a move that turned out to be a launching pad for the delta variant.

An abortion ban that Abbott signed this spring is a direct attack on personal choice and freedom for women with minorities as the chief targets. The GOP abortion law has sparked a massive backlash from the business community that Abbott and GOP lawmakers are seeking to regulate now with the new social media law.

more to come ...