Hayes Censorship Bill Offers $100K Damages, Then Exempts The Newsfeed

The text as introduced · 962 words

89R3518 SRA-D

By: Hayes
H.B. No. 4087

A BILL TO BE ENTITLED

AN ACT

relating to censorship of or certain other interference with

digital expression, including expression on social media platforms

or through electronic mail messages.

BE IT ENACTED BY THE LEGISLATURE OF THE STATE OF TEXAS:

SECTION 1. The legislature finds that:

(1) although H.B. 20, as passed by the 87th

Legislature, 2nd Called Session, 2021, clearly applies to social

media platforms only in their role as common carriers in

facilitating public forums for public debate, the legislation has

been misunderstood to apply more broadly and therefore requires

clarification;

(2) an effective state remedy for social media

censorship is essential because:

(A) the federal government has massively used the

dominant social media platforms to abridge the freedom of speech;

(B) the combination of qualified immunity

impeding damages for past censorship and doctrinal limits on

injunctions against the breadth of future censorship leaves Texans

and other Americans without adequate judicial remedies for federal

censorship;

(C) dominant common carriers, especially when

given exaggerated dominance by federal privilege, pressure, and

coordination, must be available to persons of all points of view,

without discrimination; and

(D) the public square, which is now mainly on the

Internet and is enabled by the dominant social media platforms,

must be available to persons of all points of view, without

discrimination;

(3) damages are necessary for violations of H.B. 20

because, even though private enforcement of the legislation has

never been enjoined, the platforms subject to the legislation have

never complied with it;

(4) the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution bars

the federal government from "abridging" the freedom of speech or of

the press, not merely coercing or otherwise "prohibiting" it;

(5) states have a structurally essential role, dating

back to the Sedition Act of 1798, of protecting individuals from

federal censorship; and

(6) since H.B. 20 was originally enacted:

(A) abundant evidence has come to light that the

federal government has massively used dominant social media

platforms to abridge the freedom of speech;

(B) it has become clear that common carrier

legislation like H.B. 20 is the only sort of legal mechanism that

can promptly and effectively prevent federal censorship through the

social media platforms; and

(C) this state has a compelling and even

existential interest in adopting this law to prevent the federal

threat to the freedom of speech.

SECTION 2. Section 120.001(1), Business & Commerce Code, is

amended to read as follows:

(1) "Social media platform" means an Internet website

or application that is open to the public, allows a user to create

an account, and enables users to communicate with other users for

the primary purpose of posting information, comments, messages, or

images. The term does not include:

(A) an Internet service provider as defined by

Section 324.055;

(B) electronic mail , including direct messaging

or other electronically conveyed mail ; or

(C) an online service, application, or website:

(i) that :

(a) consists primarily of news,

sports, entertainment, or other information or content that is not

user generated but is preselected by the provider; or

(b) primarily provides banking,

financial, transportation, sales, or another service that is not a

communications service; and

(ii) for which any chat, comments, or

interactive functionality is incidental to, directly related to, or

dependent on the provision of the content or service described by

Subparagraph (i).

SECTION 3. Section 143A.005, Civil Practice and Remedies

Code, is amended to read as follows:

Sec. 143A.005. LIMITATION ON EFFECT OF CHAPTER ;

INTERPRETATION OF CHAPTER . (a) This chapter does not subject a

social media platform to damages or other legal remedies to the

extent the social media platform is protected from those remedies

under federal law.

(b) This chapter does not apply to a social media platform's

newsfeed, the platform's own homepage, or any other service that

is:

(1) intended to convey a particularized message where

the likelihood is great that such a message would be understood by

the viewer;

(2) not a common carrier service;

(3) not strongly analogous to a common carrier

service; or

(4) not primarily providing transmission of users'

expression.

(c) Nothing in this chapter may be interpreted to permit a

social media platform to discriminate in the carriage of users'

expression by disseminating the platform's own commentary or

expression in a manner that delays or otherwise diminishes the

visibility of a user's expression, or delays or otherwise denies

equal access to a user's expression, or otherwise censors a user's

expression, on the basis of viewpoint in violation of this chapter.

SECTION 4. Section 143A.007(b), Civil Practice and Remedies

Code, is amended to read as follows:

(b) If the user proves that the social media platform

violated this chapter with respect to the user, the user is entitled

to recover:

(1) declaratory relief under Chapter 37, including

costs and reasonable and necessary attorney's fees under Section

37.009; [ and ]

(2) injunctive relief ;

(3) either:

(A) actual damages; or

(B) at the election of the user, statutory

damages in the amount of:

(i) $100,000 if the user or the user's

expression was censored in violation of Section 143A.002; or

(ii) $1,000 if the user's ability to receive

another person's expression was censored in violation of Section

143A.002; and

(4) reasonable and necessary attorney's fees .

SECTION 5. Section 143A.007(b), Civil Practice and Remedies

Code, as amended by this Act, applies only to a cause of action that

accrues on or after the effective date of this Act. A cause of

action that accrued before the effective date of this Act is

governed by the law as it existed immediately before the effective

date of this Act, and that law is continued in effect for that

purpose.

SECTION 6. This Act takes effect September 1, 2025.