Texas Governor Bans Social Media Outlets From Making Choices About Their Own Platforms

Republican Texas governor Greg Abbott has signed a law that forbids social media companies from banning people from their platforms based on their location and/or their politics. This isn't actually a thing that social media outlets were doing, and a similar law in Florida was already struck down by the courts, but that didn't stop Abbott from pandering to the dumbest conservatives in his state by signing the legislation. Apparently these free market, small government conservatives love telling corporations what they can and can't do, as Ring of Fire's Farron Cousins explains.

Become a member today!

Support us by becoming a monthly patron on Patreon, and help keep progressive media alive!

Find our merchandise at Teespring

Spread the word! LIKE and SHARE this video or leave a comment to help direct attention to the stories that matter. And SUBSCRIBE to stay connected with Ring of Fire's video content!

Support Ring of Fire by subscribing to our YouTube channel

Be sociable! Follow us on:

Follow more of our stories at

Subscribe to our podcast

*This transcript was generated by a third-party transcription software company, so please excuse any typos.

Republican Texas governor Greg Abbott has signed a law that is going to make it illegal for social media companies operating in the state of Texas from banning anybody from their platforms based on their geographic location and of course, you know, their political affiliations, which are already two things that social media companies are not doing. So Greg Abbott passed a law to address a problem that doesn't actually exist, but it exists in the minds of Republicans, right? In their diluted alternative re, alternative reality, it exists. It's rampant everywhere. Conservatives aren't even on social media in that crazy reality because they've all been kicked off. We all know that's stupid. We all know that's not true. We know that according to the Facebook algorithm, conservatives have their stuff reach far more many millions of people than those of us on the left. We know that their YouTube channels boast millions and millions of followers while we only have what three, three lefty talkers that have more than a million subscribers on YouTube, Sam, David Pakman and TYT.

Yeah. Conservatives are not being punished. You also have hundreds of thousands of followers on your Twitter accounts for people that we've never heard of, but somehow being a conservative talker gets you all these followers. You're not being punished by any stretch of the imagination unless of course you violate the terms of service that you agree to when you sign up for the platform. Here's what this new Texas law says. It prohibits social media platforms from censoring a user, their expression, or their ability to receive the expression of another person based on the viewpoint of the user or another person or the viewpoint represented in the user's expression or another person's expression. It also prohibits such censoring based on the user's geographic location within the state. It applies regardless of whether the viewpoint has been expressed on a social media platform or through any other platform. Social media platforms are also mandated to publicly disclose accurate information about their content and data management, as well as their business practices, such as the manner for curating and targeting content to users, moderating users, using algorithms for determining results on the platform.

Yada, yada, holy crap. These are small government conservatives, right? This is the political party that tells us that private businesses should be able to do whatever the hell they want to do. And now Abbott comes out there, signs this law says, not only can you not kick users off your platform, you have to allow everybody to be on there, regardless of whatever. But we also, we want to know who's running your things. We want to see your paperwork. We want to see your data. We want access to your algorithms. That, that's, that's, that's insane. That's insane. Meanwhile, you have a fracking industry, by the way, in the state of Texas and of course all over the country, man, I'd love to have this kind of law about them, right? Hey, show us what's in your fracking fluids. Show us what chemicals you're pumping into the ground. Show us what toxins you're exposing nearby residents to.