Disruption

California’s youth digital privacy law heads to court

The hearing on Thursday, in U.S. District Court in San Jose, represents the first significant legal test for the pioneering law.
FILE – A man using a cell phone walks past Google offices on Dec. 17, 2018, in New York. (AP Photo/Mark Lennihan, File)

The tech industry and the state of California are scheduled to face off in a courtroom Thursday over the constitutionality of a first-in-the-nation law aimed at protecting the digital privacy and well-being of youth when they are online.

NetChoice, a right-of-center tech trade group, is seeking a preliminary injunction to block California’s Age-Appropriate Design Code from taking effect while its lawsuit to overturn the 2022 law is pending. A central issue in the case is whether the California law veers into the legally fraught realm of moderating online content. 

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