Cite as: 603 U. S. ____ (2024)
11
ALITO, J., concurring in judgment
Platforms must allow users to appeal removal decisions
through “an easily accessible complaint system;” resolve
such appeals within 14 business days (unless an enumerated exception applies); and, if the appeal is successful, provide “the reason for the reversal.” §§120.101, 120.103(a)(2),
(a)(3)(B)–(b), 120.104.
Users may sue any platform that violates these provisions, as may the Texas attorney general. §143A.007(d).
But unlike the Florida law, H. B. 20 authorizes only injunctive relief. §§143A.007(a), 143A.008. It contains a strong
severability provision, §8(a), which reaches “every provision, section, subsection, sentence, clause, phrase, or word
in th[e] Act, and every application of [its] provisions.”
2
As it did in the Florida case, NetChoice sought a preliminary injunction in federal court, claiming that H. B. 20 violates the First Amendment in its entirety. In response,
Texas argued that because H. B. 20 regulates NetChoice’s
members “in their operation as publicly accessible conduits
for the speech of others” rather than “as authors or editors”
of their own speech, NetChoice could not prevail. Record in
No. 1:21–CV–00840 (WD Tex.), Doc. 39, p. 23. But even if
the platforms might have the right to use algorithms to censor their users’ speech, the State argued, the question of
“what these algorithms are doing is a critical, and so far,
unexplained, aspect of this case.” Id., at 24. This deficiency
mattered, Texas contended, because the platforms could
succeed on their facial challenge only by showing that “all
algorithms used by the Platforms are for the purposes of
expressing viewpoints of those Platforms.” Id., at 27. And
because NetChoice had not even explained what its members’ algorithms did, much less whether they did so in an
expressive way, Texas argued that NetChoice had not
shown that “all applications of H.B. 20 are unconstitutional.” Ibid.; see also id., Doc. 53, at 13 (arguing that
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