Texas Bill SB20 That Could Ban Anime Passes The House
Earlier this month: From Goblin Slayer to Fruits Basket, a Texas Bill Wants to Make Anime's Biggest Hits Illegal (ScreenRant)
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Source: The Outerhaven
Texas Bill SB20 That Could Ban Anime Passes The House
By Josh PiedraMay 26, 2025
On May 22, 2025, the House of Representatives voted on and passed SB20, a bill created by the state of Texas that could end up banning all anime. The bill had been voted on and passed by the Senate on March 12, 2025, by both Democrats and Republicans. This means, all that needs to happen is for Texas Governor Greg Abbott to sign it for it to become official law.
The bill does not specifically target anime; however, anime, video games, and other forms of digital media could fall under the bill’s scope of cracking down on explicit content involving minors, whether real, drawn, or AI-generated. The bill would make it illegal to possess, share, or create obscene material depicting minors.
Penalties for violating SB20 include State Jail Felony, all the way up to Second-Degree Felony charges for repeat offenses. As the world enters the digital age, especially with AI gaining prominence, laws such as this are sure to come up. What that means for your 10,000-year-old demon masquerading as a 10-year-old girl remains to be seen; however, under this law, possessing that content could, in fact, land you behind bars.
As of the time of this writing, Texas has not signed it into law. If it does get signed, the bill will become law on September 1, 2025.
https://www.theouterhaven.net/texas-bill-sb20-that-could-ban-anime-passes-the-house/
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Source: ScreenRant
From Goblin Slayer to Fruits Basket, a Texas Bill Wants to Make Anime's Biggest Hits Illegal
By Carlyle Edmundson Published May 14, 2025
Anime fans in Texas beware: the government is coming for your anime. At least, that's what could happen if a restrictive new law is passed in the Lone Star state.
The new bill, currently referred to as Senate Bill (SB) 20, was introduced by Republican lawmaker Pete Flores, and it ostensibly tackles the problem of child pornography. While that might sound like a good thing, the bill was written to be extremely broad and able to be applied to a huge variety of completely legitimate works, particularly anime and manga. This is without a doubt the most extreme case of censorship of anime and manga in the history of the United States, directly treading upon Americans' rights to freedom of expression and speech.
Texas's New Bill Could Land You in Prison
The Bill Promises to Punish First-Time Offenders With 5 Years in Prison
While nearly everyone can agree with the intent of the bill, the actual text of SB20 makes it clear that this issue is merely a smokescreen to cover for the massive degree of censorship that Texas Republicans want to enact. The bill "creates a new state offense for the possession or promotion of obscene material that appears to depict a child younger than 18 years old, regardless of whether the depiction is of an actual child, cartoon or animation, or an image created using an artificial intelligence application or other computer software."
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Read more: https://screenrant.com/anime-ban-censorship-america-texas-goblin-slayer-controversy/
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