Has Texas just outlawed content moderation?

Has Texas - admittedly a state that is not shy of creating harmful and unworkable laws - really just outlawed social media content moderation? And maybe even any algorithm that prioritises what you see when you log into such sites.

I’m no fan of a lot of these big social media companies, but I can’t see forcing them to show you every piece of garbage anyone wants to spill out of their troll-brains into the digital ether is going to make for a better experience.

Twitter declining to host Trump’s tweets on the basis that they break its terms of service and incite violence must really have annoyed certain people.

Texas’s law makes it illegal for any social media platform with 50 million or more US monthly users to “block, ban, remove, deplatform, demonetize, de-boost, restrict, deny equal access or visibility to, or otherwise discriminate against expression.”

And no, these services can’t necessarily even just roll their eyes, give up and go elsewhere.

Buried in the law is a prohibition on discriminating against Texans based on their geographic location. By withdrawing from Texas, tech companies could expose themselves to allegations they have geographically discriminated against Texans in violation of HB 20.