ATLANTA — Georgia Republicans passed a bill in the Senate Tuesday that would prevent social media platforms from censoring user viewpoints.

Similar laws passed in Texas and Florida last year have been blocked by judges in federal courts. A proposal – which awaits a House and Senate vote – in Alabama seeks to make the platform pay $100,000 to the user for each offense, while in Mississippi, a social media censorship bill died in committee in early February. 

“Georgia is about to be the first state in the nation to empower users of social media platforms,” Senate Majority Leader Mike Dugan, R-Carrollton, said. “By passing SB 393, we are ensuring Georgians are not unfairly targeted for their personal ideologies by giving oversight of social media platforms to our Public Service Commission.”

Senate Bill 293 would prohibit large social media platforms with more than 20 million U.S. users from censoring someone in Georgia based on their viewpoints, or actual or perceived race, color, ethnicity, religion, political beliefs or affiliation, national origin, sex, gender, sexual orientation or disability. The bill would still allow the social media platforms to still ban posts or users for harassment, excessive violence or pornography.

The bill also requires platforms to disclose information regarding decision-making procedures, content management info, algorithms and other information, and requires the platform to publish a report every six months on data related to number of policy violating posts, content removal, content demonetization, etc. 

Republican Sen. Greg Dolezal, the bill’s sponsor, in January attributed the censorship proposal to social media sites filtering or banning users for “false” claims of election fraud and COVID-19 information — most notably former President Donald Trump and U.S. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene. 

The legislation protects “Georgia users across all major social media platforms from the ongoing censorship that has unfairly targeted conservatives and anyone who seems to challenge the prevailing thought,” Dolezal said at the time. “With this legislation, Silicon Valley liberals will no longer be able to silence the voices of Georgians without making a transparent case with a justifiable cause.”

The bill encourages civil actions against social media platforms that violate the law.  

Democrat Sen. Jen Jordan‚ who was among 21 Democrats who voted against the bill, said while social media companies are “out of control,” the state’s Republican-led proposal is unconstitutional.

“It should be dealt with on a federal level,” Jordan said. 

Opponents have also argued the bill would make it harder for social media platforms to filter out hate speech or false information.

The bill now heads to the House for a vote.