Fifth Circuit blocks key Texas online-safety mandate
A divided federal appeals court has kept Texas from enforcing a key part of its online-safety law for minors against two major technology trade groups, ruling that the requirement is preempted by federal internet protections.
The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit issued the ruling July 24, 2026, in consolidated appeals Computer & Communications Industry Association v. Paxton and Students Engaged in Advancing Texas v. Paxton. The decision preserves the preliminary injunction protecting the Computer & Communications Industry Association and NetChoice from enforcement of Texas House Bill 18’s monitoring-and-filtering requirement while the litigation continues.
What the Fifth Circuit decided
In a 2-1 ruling, the panel held that the challenged monitoring-and-filtering provision of H.B. 18, also known as the Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment Act or SCOPE Act, is preempted by Section 230(c)(1) of the Communications Decency Act.
The provision requires covered digital-service providers to develop and implement a strategy to prevent known minors from being exposed to harmful material and other content that promotes, glorifies or facilitates suicide, self-harm, eating disorders, substance abuse, stalking, bullying, harassment, grooming, trafficking and sexual exploitation or abuse.
The majority reasoned that compliance would require platforms to monitor, alter or remove third-party content. In the court’s view, that would treat the companies as publishers or speakers based on their handling of material created by other users, bringing the mandate within Section 230’s preemption protection.
The court therefore affirmed the district court’s injunction as to CCIA and NetChoice. It vacated and remanded the injunction as to Students Engaged in Advancing Texas, or SEAT, and the other individual and organizational plaintiffs.
The ruling does not erase H.B. 18
H.B. 18 took effect Sept. 1, 2024, but a federal district court had enjoined key provisions before enforcement. The law applies to defined categories of digital-service providers and includes exemptions for some government, financial, medical, educational, small-business, news, sports and commerce services.
The Fifth Circuit’s decision was limited to the preliminary-injunction appeals. It did not strike down all of H.B. 18 or resolve every claim involving Texas’ online-safety rules.
Age verification was treated separately from the monitoring-and-filtering mandate. H.B. 18 requires a covered service that determines more than one-third of its published or distributed material is harmful or obscene under Texas law to use a commercially reasonable method to verify that users are at least 18 and deny access to those who are not. Reuters reported that the Fifth Circuit upheld that requirement in the ruling, while the opinion states that SEAT’s challenge to age verification was foreclosed by precedent.
Other provisions, including age registration, targeted advertising and advertising for unlawful products or activities, were not resolved by the Section 230 holding for CCIA and NetChoice. The panel said SEAT lacked standing to challenge the monitoring-and-filtering, targeted-advertising and unlawful-advertising requirements, and sent those issues back for further proceedings.
The First Amendment issues remain open
The majority expressly declined to reach the First Amendment questions. Its ruling rested on Section 230 preemption and the preliminary-injunction record, rather than a final constitutional determination about whether Texas’ requirements violate the First Amendment.
Judge James Ho concurred in part and dissented in part. He agreed with vacating the injunction as to some claims but would have vacated it entirely. Ho argued that Section 230 does not protect a platform when the state regulates its own curation of third-party material, which he described as the platform’s first-party speech rather than publication of another person’s speech.
Why the ruling matters
The decision gives technology companies a significant appellate precedent in the national dispute over state laws aimed at protecting children online. States have pursued different approaches involving age checks, content controls, parental tools and platform duties, while technology companies have challenged those requirements under federal law and the First Amendment.
For the platform groups protected by the injunction, the immediate effect is that Texas cannot enforce the specific monitoring-and-filtering mandate while the case proceeds. The ruling does not mean that every online service is covered by H.B. 18, and it does not remove all Texas online-safety obligations or age-verification rules.
For Texas parents and users, the practical result is narrower: the particular content-monitoring mandate remains blocked for the protected plaintiffs, but other provisions of the law remain separately litigated or otherwise unresolved.
The next steps include proceedings in the district court after the remand, possible further appeals and continued litigation over the statutory and constitutional limits of state regulation. Separate Supreme Court proceedings involving Texas age verification for app downloads provide related national context, but they concern a different case and statutory provision.
Sources
- Fifth Circuit opinion in the consolidated H.B. 18 appeals
- Reuters: U.S. appeals court blocks part of Texas children’s online safety law
- Associated Press: Supreme Court declines to block Texas age-verification law for app downloads
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