Texas 2025 - 89th Regular

Texas Senate Bill SB1626 Compare Versions

Version 1 (Old)

Version 2 (New)

Old	New		Differences
	1	+	89R3518 SRA-D
1	2		By: Hughes S.B. No. 1626
2		-	(In the Senate - Filed February 25, 2025; March 11, 2025,
3		-	read first time and referred to Committee on State Affairs;
4		-	April 14, 2025, reported adversely, with favorable Committee
5		-	Substitute by the following vote: Yeas 8, Nays 0; April 14, 2025,
6		-	sent to printer.)
7		-	Click here to see the committee vote
8		-	COMMITTEE SUBSTITUTE FOR S.B. No. 1626 By: Paxton
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13	7		A BILL TO BE ENTITLED
14	8		AN ACT
15	9		relating to censorship of or certain other interference with
16	10		digital expression, including expression on social media platforms
17	11		or through electronic mail messages.
18	12		BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:
19	13		SECTION 1. The legislature finds that:
20	14		(1) although H.B. 20, as passed by the 87th
21	15		Legislature, 2nd Called Session, 2021, clearly applies to social
22	16		media platforms only in their role as common carriers in
23	17		facilitating public forums for public debate, the legislation has
24	18		been misunderstood to apply more broadly and therefore requires
25	19		clarification;
26	20		(2) an effective state remedy for social media
27	21		censorship is essential because:
28	22		(A) the federal government has massively used the
29	23		dominant social media platforms to abridge the freedom of speech;
30	24		(B) the combination of qualified immunity
31	25		impeding damages for past censorship and doctrinal limits on
32	26		injunctions against the breadth of future censorship leaves Texans
33	27		and other Americans without adequate judicial remedies for federal
34	28		censorship;
35	29		(C) dominant common carriers, especially when
36	30		given exaggerated dominance by federal privilege, pressure, and
37	31		coordination, must be available to persons of all points of view,
38	32		without discrimination; and
39	33		(D) the public square, which is now mainly on the
40	34		Internet and is enabled by the dominant social media platforms,
41	35		must be available to persons of all points of view, without
42	36		discrimination;
43	37		(3) damages are necessary for violations of H.B. 20
44	38		because, even though private enforcement of the legislation has
45	39		never been enjoined, the platforms subject to the legislation have
46	40		never complied with it;
47	41		(4) the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution bars
48	42		the federal government from "abridging" the freedom of speech or of
49	43		the press, not merely coercing or otherwise "prohibiting" it;
50	44		(5) states have a structurally essential role, dating
51	45		back to the Sedition Act of 1798, of protecting individuals from
52	46		federal censorship; and
53	47		(6) since H.B. 20 was originally enacted:
54	48		(A) abundant evidence has come to light that the
55	49		federal government has massively used dominant social media
56	50		platforms to abridge the freedom of speech;
57	51		(B) it has become clear that common carrier
58	52		legislation like H.B. 20 is the only sort of legal mechanism that
59	53		can promptly and effectively prevent federal censorship through the
60	54		social media platforms; and
61	55		(C) this state has a compelling and even
62	56		existential interest in adopting this law to prevent the federal
63	57		threat to the freedom of speech.
64	58		SECTION 2. Section 120.001(1), Business & Commerce Code, is
65	59		amended to read as follows:
66	60		(1) "Social media platform" means an Internet website
67	61		or application that is open to the public, allows a user to create
68	62		an account, and enables users to communicate with other users for
69	63		the primary purpose of posting information, comments, messages, or
70	64		images. The term does not include:
71	65		(A) an Internet service provider as defined by
72	66		Section 324.055;
73	67		(B) electronic mail, including direct messaging
74	68		or other electronically conveyed mail; or
75	69		(C) an online service, application, or website:
76	70		(i) that:
77	71		(a) consists primarily of news,
78	72		sports, entertainment, or other information or content that is not
79	73		user generated but is preselected by the provider; or
80	74		(b) primarily provides banking,
81		-	financial, transportation, or sales services, services related to
82		-	the playing or creation of video games, or another service that is
83		-	not a communications service; and
	75	+	financial, transportation, sales, or another service that is not a
	76	+	communications service; and
84	77		(ii) for which any chat, comments, or
85	78		interactive functionality is incidental to, directly related to, or
86	79		dependent on the provision of the content or service described by
87	80		Subparagraph (i).
88		-	SECTION 3. Section 143A.004(c), Civil Practice and Remedies
89		-	Code, is amended to read as follows:
90		-	(c) This chapter applies only to a social media platform
91		-	that functionally has more than 65 [50] million active users in the
92		-	United States in a calendar month.
93		-	SECTION 4. Section 143A.005, Civil Practice and Remedies
	81	+	SECTION 3. Section 143A.005, Civil Practice and Remedies
94	82		Code, is amended to read as follows:
95	83		Sec. 143A.005. LIMITATION ON EFFECT OF CHAPTER;
96	84		INTERPRETATION OF CHAPTER. (a) This chapter does not subject a
97	85		social media platform to damages or other legal remedies to the
98	86		extent the social media platform is protected from those remedies
99	87		under federal law.
100	88		(b) This chapter does not apply to a social media platform's
101	89		newsfeed, the platform's own homepage, or any other service that
102	90		is:
103	91		(1) intended to convey a particularized message where
104	92		the likelihood is great that such a message would be understood by
105	93		the viewer;
106	94		(2) not a common carrier service;
107	95		(3) not strongly analogous to a common carrier
108	96		service; or
109	97		(4) not primarily providing transmission of users'
110	98		expression.
111	99		(c) Nothing in this chapter may be interpreted to permit a
112	100		social media platform to discriminate in the carriage of users'
113	101		expression by disseminating the platform's own commentary or
114	102		expression in a manner that delays or otherwise diminishes the
115	103		visibility of a user's expression, or delays or otherwise denies
116	104		equal access to a user's expression, or otherwise censors a user's
117	105		expression, on the basis of viewpoint in violation of this chapter.
118		-	SECTION 5. Section 143A.007(b), Civil Practice and Remedies
	106	+	SECTION 4. Section 143A.007(b), Civil Practice and Remedies
119	107		Code, is amended to read as follows:
120	108		(b) If the user proves that the social media platform
121	109		violated this chapter with respect to the user, the user is entitled
122	110		to recover:
123	111		(1) declaratory relief under Chapter 37, including
124	112		costs and reasonable and necessary attorney's fees under Section
125	113		37.009; [and]
126	114		(2) injunctive relief;
127	115		(3) either:
128	116		(A) actual damages; or
129	117		(B) at the election of the user, statutory
130	118		damages in the amount of:
131	119		(i) $100,000 if the user or the user's
132	120		expression was censored in violation of Section 143A.002; or
133	121		(ii) $1,000 if the user's ability to receive
134	122		another person's expression was censored in violation of Section
135	123		143A.002; and
136	124		(4) reasonable and necessary attorney's fees.
137		-	SECTION 6. Section 143A.007(b), Civil Practice and Remedies
	125	+	SECTION 5. Section 143A.007(b), Civil Practice and Remedies
138	126		Code, as amended by this Act, applies only to a cause of action that
139	127		accrues on or after the effective date of this Act. A cause of
140	128		action that accrued before the effective date of this Act is
141	129		governed by the law as it existed immediately before the effective
142	130		date of this Act, and that law is continued in effect for that
143	131		purpose.
144		-	SECTION 7. This Act takes effect September 1, 2025.
145		-	* * * * *
	132	+	SECTION 6. This Act takes effect September 1, 2025.