Texas secessionists sue Facebook’s parent company under social media censorship law that’s yet to take effect

Texas' law to punish alleged social media censorship is on hold, pending an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court. But Texas secessionists are seeking to use the law in a class action suit against Facebook's parent company. The Texas Nationalist Movement and its president, Daniel Miller, are asking for an injunction against Meta Platforms under House Bill 20, saying that Meta's banning of posts including a link to its website is illegal censorship. "Plaintiffs suffer immediate and irreparable harm every day that Meta continues to censor Plaintiffs," the plaintiffs' petition said. "And as the U.S. Supreme Court and the Fifth Circuit have both held, ‘[t]he loss of First Amendment freedoms, for even minimal periods of time, unquestionably constitutes irreparable injury.'"

The problem for the plaintiffs is that the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals has stayed enforcement of HB 20, pending an appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court by two trade groups representing large social media platforms – NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA). The two entities are suing Texas to overturn HB 20, contending the law violates the First Amendment rights of the platforms to moderate their own content. The Texas Nationalist Movement and Miller "are trying to enforce a law that has been stayed. The 5th Circuit stayed the issuance of its mandate, and so the law is not in effect right now," said Tom Leatherbury, director of the First Amendment Clinic at Southern Methodist University's Dedman School of Law. HB 20 bans social media platforms with more than 50 million users from removing an account holder for what it terms “viewpoint discrimination.” Under the law, a banned user can sue a social media platform for reinstatement. If that person can’t find a private attorney, the Texas attorney general may bring a suit on the person’s behalf.