Texas Governor Greg Abbott signed a bill on Thursday preventing social media companies from banning users or removing posts based on political views.

CBS News reported the new law affects platforms with more than 50 million users and blocks them from removing users because of their political opinions. Companies such as Twitter, Google, and Facebook are affected by this law

The legislation allows users to sue the platforms to get reinstated if they believe the platforms unfairly terminated their accounts. It also allows the Attorney General to sue on behalf of affected citizens.

“We will always defend the freedom of speech in Texas, which is why I am proud to sign House Bill 20 into law to protect first amendment rights in the Lone Star State,” Governor Abbott said in a post to Facebook, reported on by CBS News. “Social media websites have become our modern-day public square. They are a place for healthy public debate where information should be able to flow freely — but there is a dangerous movement by social media companies to silence conservative viewpoints and ideas. That is wrong, and we will not allow it in Texas.”

In addition, the law requires platforms to disclose their moderation policies and create an appeals process for banned users. It also requires the companies to remove illegal content within 48 hours of being notified. The companies would have to produce regular reports of the removed from their platforms.

Social media platforms have claimed they do not discriminate based on the viewpoints of their users. Instead, they claim to be enforcing their rules on what content is allowed and only will delete users who violate the term of service they agreed to when signing up.

“This law is going to put more hate speech, scams, terrorist content, and misinformation online, when most people want a safer, healthier Internet,” Adam Kovacevich told the Wall Street Journal. Kovacevich is the chief executive of the Chamber of Progress, a newly formed left-leaning tech policy group.

Texas is not the first state to take aim at these companies. Others are also taking similar measures against social media platforms. In May, Florida Governor Ron DeSantis signed a bill that prohibited platforms from banning politicians from the Sunshine State. USA Today reported a federal judge has recently blocked the law, and it is pending further appeal.

All of this comes less than a year after former President Donald Trump, a Republican, was banned from major social media platforms. Fellow Republicans have denounced the move and pointed to it as an example of anti-conservative bias by big tech companies. Platforms, meanwhile, have defended the decision, citing the inflammatory rhetoric used by the former President and his involvement in the January 6th demonstration at the Capitol.