A leading tech industry trade group is suing California to overturn a freshly enacted law barring addictive social media feeds for teenagers, the latest in a barrage of lawsuits aimed at thwarting state-level regulations of online platforms.
NetChoice, whose members include Google, Meta, Snap and X, filed the lawsuit Tuesday in federal court in San Francisco. It aims to block the Protecting Our Kids from Social Media Addiction Act from being enforced against NetChoice’s member companies.
Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed the measure into law in September.
“It is a mandate for censorship that does nothing to advance online safety. We look forward to halting it in court,” Paul Taske, NetChoice’s associate director of litigation, said in a statement.
The law, which was modeled on a similar law passed this year in New York, seeks to prohibit social media companies from providing teens with personalized feeds designed to maximize their attention. Instead, the default would be a chronological feed.
The measure also requires social media platforms to turn off notifications to teen accounts during overnight hours and the school day and to give parents new tools to control their child’s access.
Parents would be allowed to override default restrictions, including a one-hour-per-day limit on access to a personalized, algorithm-fed feed.
The 34-page complaint alleges the California law is an attempt to “unconstitutionally regulate minors’ access to protected online speech — impairing adults’ access along the way.”
Specifically, the complaint says the default ban on personalized feeds limits the free speech rights of the platforms themselves and their users. It also alleges the parental consent provisions and the requirement that platforms ascertain the age of users constitute First Amendment violations.
NetChoice also argues that the law unfairly exempts some platforms and puts the personal data of California residents at risk, among other flaws.
NetChoice is seeking an injunction to keep the law from taking effect while the case is litigated. The trade group has not sued to overturn New York’s nearly identical law. A spokesperson said the trade group does not discuss its litigation strategy.
Newsom’s office declined to comment directly on the lawsuit but said, “California will continue to protect and defend the safety and well-being of children and teens.” The office of Attorney General Rob Bonta (D), who cosponsored the legislation, said the law “does not regulate speech.”
In a statement, James Steyer, founder and CEO of Common Sense Media, blasted the lawsuit as “hypocritical” and called the California law a “common sense and constitutional approach.”
“Once again, social media companies refuse to accept any regulation of its industry despite the known fact that its products are harming kids and teens,” Steyer said. “California lawmakers overwhelmingly felt differently, and they passed a good law to protect kids that abides by the constitution. Shame on NetChoice and the companies that hide behind them.”
Steyer also said Meta recently adopted several of the same protections when it launched teen accounts for its Instagram users.
The California and New York laws represented the latest effort by state lawmakers to regulate social media platforms in response to growing alarm over youth depression and anxiety rates.
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy called in June for warning labels to be attached to social media. Bonta announced last week he is preparing legislation for the 2025 session to make California the first state to require such labels.
Several other states have enacted laws requiring parental permission for teens to have social media accounts. NetChoice has thwarted most of those efforts, winning preliminary injunctions in Arkansas, Mississippi, Ohio, Texas and Utah. A similar challenge, filed jointly with the Computer & Communications Industry Association, is pending in Florida.
NetChoice previously blocked a first-in-the-nation California law requiring that online services that are likely to be used by children be designed with their best interests in mind.
Maryland Gov. Wes Moore (D) signed a revised version of the so-called Age-Appropriate Design Code in May. It has not been challenged.
This story has been updated to include comments from the offices’ of California’s governor and attorney general.