In my assessment of the bill, not only does it seem like a bad idea, but also hypocritical by the lawmakers of Texas. First, hate speech is a real thing, especially in the world of social media where someone’s opinion can reach so many different people. In one of the articles, it points to how Twitter banned former president Trump off the platform. This was warranted by Twitter though, given how Trump incited the riot on January 6th, a riot from right-wing extremists that resulted in the death of 5 people. I have no idea how these lawmakers can point to this ban of Trump by Twitter and say that it was unjustified. Secondly, this bill is very hypocritical coming from lawmakers of Texas like Greg Abbott. The reason I say this is because of a case that involved business’s right to deny people service. In Colorado, there was the case of a baker who refused to give service to an LGBT couple, and cited his religion as the reason he couldn’t bake the cake for the couple’s wedding. The case went all the way up to the Supreme Court, who sided with the baker. Texan lawmakers commended this ruling, saying it defended the baker’s right to refuse service. However, this bill contradicts this, saying it isn’t okay for platforms like Twitter, Instagram, and YouTube to deny service to basically right-wing extremists who spew hate speech. So in my eyes, it feels like now that the shoe is on the other foot, they feel like it isn’t right for platforms to deny them service and a platform on which to say their extremist beliefs. That is highly hypocritical and I don’t agree with this bill.
Jacob Dylan Bennett 