Gov. Abbott & Senator Hughes in Tyler speaking on bill to ‘prohibit social media censorship’

TYLER — The Plaza Tower in downtown Tyler, was the site of a Friday press conference held by Governor Greg Abbott and State Senator Bryan Hughes. The governor addressed the bill will prohibit social media companies from censoring Texans based on their political opinions. “The United States of America was built on freedom of speech and healthy public debate.” Abbott said, “Big techs efforts to silence conservative viewpoints is un-American, un-Texan, unacceptable and pretty soon it is going to be against the law in the state of Texas.” To read the bill click here.

“If you have a viewpoint different from theirs, they want to shut you up. That’s not the American way…Just like AT&T can’t cut off my cell service because they don’t like a conversation we’re having, these folks should not be given that power,” Sen. Hughes said. “We can’t let them abuse it like they have been.” We need to recognize in Texas, maybe particularly in Texas, we see that the First Amendment is under assault by the social media companies and that is not going to be tolerated in Texas,” Abbott said.

Governor Abbott also addressed power issues during a February winter storm that has brought numerous changes with leadership of ERCOT. “What happened in Texas is completely unacceptable,” Abbott said. “People pay their power bills they expect to be able to get power for that power to be shut down is reprehensible. We’ve already identified some of the root causes of this. But more importantly, we’ve identified solutions to this. Let me tell you something, we are not going to end this legislative session without ensuring that the power never goes down in Texas again. And people in East Texas or any place in Texas, we’ll never have to experience this episode ever again.”