Tyler news conference: Abbott, Hughes to promote legislation limiting social media platforms

TYLER – Gov. Greg Abbott will visit Tyler on Friday to draw attention to the ongoing efforts of Sen. Bryan Hughes to limit the power of social media platforms to block viewpoints they don’t agree with. According to our news partner KETK, Hughes, R-Mineola, is the author Senate Bill 12 which would prohibit interactive platforms such as Facebook and Twitter from being able to “censor a user, a user’s expression, or a user’s ability to receive the expression of another person.” The bill would also allow Texans who felt they were censored to be able to take legal action. Abbott will join Hughes during a news conference set for noon Friday in the atrium of Plaza Tower, 110 N. College Ave.

“Censorship is a real concern not just in Texas but across the country,” Hughes said in a recent interview with Wes Rappaport of Nexstar Texas. “This has been a problem for a while. It seems to be becoming more acute. You know, social media, that’s the new town square, right? That’s where folks go to share, ideas, to debate, to hash things out. “And unfortunately, we have a small group of people, really an elite … and they want to be the gatekeepers for all of our free speech. And they are a common carrier. These social media companies are in the communications business, just like the telephone company or the cable company.”

In the previous Texas legislative session, Hughes filed a similar bill. He has said that too often social media platform operators are serving as censors of free speech.

Hughes pointed out that social media platforms can remove content because they don’t like someone’s politics or religion and that federal law currently allows this to happen.