Texas

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton on Tuesday appealed an order that effectively blocked his investigation of the watchdog Media Matters, which issued a critical report about brand safety on the social platform X. Earlier this month, U.S. District Court Judge Amit Mehta in Washington prohibited Paxton from attempting to enforce a subpoena for a trove of information, ruling that he likely violated Media Matter’s First Amendment rights by issuing the subpoena in retaliation for the group’s report about ads on X. Paxton will ask the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals to lift that injunction. The Texas official hasn’t yet made substantive arguments to that court.

The justices will consider whether Texas and Florida laws restricting platforms from blocking some speech are constitutional.

Austin is now the second-fastest growing city in the country, and KVUE’s Boomtown project reveals how that growth is affecting housing pricing and its very identity.

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals blocked a controversial Texas social media law from going into effect Wednesday as industry groups seek to bring the case to the Supreme Court. The court granted a request from the Computer and Communications Industry Association and NetChoice to prevent the law’s implementation ahead of a potential Supreme Court hearing on the case, the tech associations said Wednesday.

The 5th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a controversial Texas law that restricts companies’ ability to remove users or violative content on Friday. The court’s decision lifts a previous injunction put in place by the Supreme Court, allowing the embattled law to go into effect.

Last week, Gov. Greg Abbott released a first ad and, on Thursday, Beto O’Rourke, the former El Paso congressman and perennial Democratic hopeful, countered with two of his own.

A Texas law that would bar social media companies from taking action on hate speech and disinformation was temporarily blocked Tuesday in a rare 5-4 Supreme Court ruling. Justices John Roberts, Brett Kavanaugh, Amy Coney Barrett, Sonia Sotomayor and Stephen Breyer ruled in favor of tech industry groups looking to block the law, with Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas, Neil Gorsuch and Elena Kagan dissenting.

Internet advertisers and others have filed a friend of the court brief at the Supreme Court in support of NetChoice and the Computer and Communications Industry Association, which are challenging a Texas social media law they say will irreparably damage online platforms as advertising vehicles.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is pressing a federal appellate court to allow the state to enforce a new law that would prohibit Twitter, Facebook and YouTube from suppressing users’ posts based on viewpoint. U.S. District Court Judge Robert Pitman in Austin blocked the law in early December, ruling that the measure violated tech companies’ First Amendment rights to exercise editorial discretion over the material they publish.

A federal judge has blocked Texas from enforcing a law that aimed to block social media companies from banning users based on political views. Judge Robert Pitman issued the order Wednesday in favor of two industry associations that sued to block the Texas law. (Famartin/Wikimedia Commons)

CCIA sues over legislation it said is unconstitutional potential aid to Nazi and white supremacist speech.

“The Wire” creator David Simon announced via Twitter on Monday that he wouldn’t film an upcoming HBO project in Texas as he apparently previously planned due to the new restrictions.

Lawmakers in Texas have passed a bill that would prohibit Facebook, Twitter, Google and other large social media companies from blocking, demoting or demonetizing posts based on political viewpoint. Gov. Greg Abbott is expected to sign the measure, which will almost certainly face a legal challenge.

Lawmakers passed a bill named for Javier Ambler II, who died in 2019 after officers arrested him in front of a Live PD television crew. If the governor signs it, this would mean the end of police cooperation with reality TV shows.