The full Fifth Circuit granted Texas's petition for rehearing en banc on October 28, 2026, and vacated the July 24, 2026 panel ruling that Section 230 preempts the monitoring-and-filtering mandate. The district court's injunction against that mandate remains while the case is reheard; argument has not been scheduled. Age-registration duties still stand. In a separate state case, Paxton reportedly obtained an agreed temporary injunction in late July 2026 that requires Discord to verify the ages of Texas users.
Texas SCOPE Act (HB 18)
100%became law
Bad for your rightsLaw
- Introduced
- Passed House
- Passed Senate
- Became Law
In force in part; the filter mandate stays blocked while the full Fifth Circuit rehears Texas's appeal
Requires parental consent and content controls for under-18s on digital services, partly blocked by the courts. Separate from the Texas porn-site law.
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- Where
- Texas, United States
- Bill number
- Texas HB 18 (SCOPE Act)
- Status
- Law
- Introduced
- March 3, 2023
- Threat
- High
- Last update
- October 28, 2026
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What it does
The SCOPE Act makes online services get a parent's consent before a minor under 18 can use them, and imposes duties to filter content and limit data collection for young users. Knowing who is a minor means checking ages, and parts of it have been enjoined on First Amendment grounds.
What’s at stake
This is the social media half of Texas's push, alongside the adult-content law the Supreme Court upheld. Together they show one state building age gates across both porn sites and mainstream platforms.
Our take
Texas is running two age-verification laws at once. The porn-site one won at the Supreme Court; this one is stuck in the courts. The direction is the same: prove who you are before you go online.
Timeline
Fifth Circuit held that Section 230 preempts the filtering mandate
Fifth Circuit held Section 230 bars the content-filtering mandate; age registration left standing.
The record
Votes
- House: Final passage (125 to 20), April 26, 2023
- Senate: Final passage (31 to 0), May 23, 2023
Legal challenges
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