Little Rock, Ark.– A tech industry trade group filed a lawsuit Thursday in Arkansas challenging a new state law that requires parental permission for minors to create social media accounts.
NetChoice, a group whose members include Facebook parent Meta, TikTok and Twitter, filed a federal lawsuit in April over the measure signed by Republican Governor Sarah Huckabee Sanders. By law, social media companies must contract with third-party vendors to conduct age verification checks on new users. This requirement is going to be effective from 1 September.
The lawsuit argues that the new requirement violates users’ constitutional rights and separates the types of speech that would be restricted.
The lawsuit states, “SB 396 imposes onerous obligations on ‘social media companies’ that seriously infringe on the First Amendment rights of both minors and adults to speak, listen, and connect without government interference on widely used online services.” burdens.”
Arkansas’ law is similar to the first ban in the country that was signed into law in Utah earlier this year. That law isn’t set to take effect until March 2024. NetChoice filed a lawsuit last year challenging a California law that required tech companies to prioritize the safety of children by prohibiting them from profiling children or using personal information that could harm children physically or mentally. can cause serious harm. ,
Republican Attorney General Tim Griffin, who was named as a defendant in the lawsuit, said he looked forward to a “vigorous defense” of the law.
The law is being challenged as social media companies face increasing scrutiny over the impact of their platforms on the mental health of teenagers, one of the concerns Sanders cited when pushing for the legislation. The governor said Thursday that he has confidence in Griffin’s ability to defend the law.
“For years, social media companies have been exploiting children and this has been proven to negatively impact their mental health,” Sanders said in a statement. “I promise to hold Big Tech accountable to protect kids and empower parents.”
Last month, US Surgeon General Vivek Murthy warned that there is not enough evidence to show that social media is safe for children and adolescents and called on tech companies to take “urgent action to protect children”. Meta announced on Tuesday that it is adding some new parental supervision tools and privacy features to its platform.
The state filed a lawsuit against Meta and TikTok earlier this year, claiming the social media companies misled consumers about the safety of children on their platforms and the protection of users’ private data.
Arkansas’ ban would only apply to social media platforms that generate more than $100 million in annual revenue. It will also not be applicable on certain platforms including LinkedIn, Google and YouTube.
The lawsuit states that the measure distinguishes between types of platforms that must comply with the age-verification requirement and those that “make no sense in theory or practice.”
Social media companies that knowingly violate the age verification requirement could face fines of up to $2,500 for each violation under the new law. The law also prohibits social media companies and third-party vendors from retaining identifying information about users after they have been granted access to a social media site.
