A federal appeals court on Wednesday allowed a Texas law prohibiting large social media platforms from banning users based on their political views to go into effect while the state appeals a lower court order that had blocked it. The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals panel did not explain its reasoning for granting the state’s request for a stay of a December order by U.S. District Judge Robert Pitman in Austin, Texas, who had found that social media companies’ 1st Amendment rights would be harmed by allowing the law to take effect.

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