Florida’s Attorney-General Ashley Moody has been named in a federal lawsuit filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of Florida against a state law that blocks children from accessing social media.
We obtained a copy of the lawsuit for you here.
Tech trade groups Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) and NetChoice are behind the filing, which alleges that the law – Florida House Bill 3 – violates First Amendment rights.
The law has received bipartisan support (30-5 in the Senate and 109-4 in the House.)
It allows 14 and 15 year-olds to sign up to social platforms provided they do it with parental consent, but bans those 13 and under. The lawsuit’s goal is to make sure the legislation does not go into effect as planned, on the first day of 2025.
According to NetChoice and CCIA (their members include Google and Meta), the new state rules incorrectly accuse social media of representing a risk to children, and compare this stance to similar past accusations against books, music, video games, etc., and the internet itself.
In other words, this time, Big Tech (via the groups suing on their behalf) take up for the First Amendment, arguing that this part of the US Constitution makes it clear the government should not get involved in “resolving” issues concerning social media – but add that the government, nonetheless, “should have a say in the debates over topics such as social media.”
That’s an interesting way to carefully approach the overall massive and ongoing controversy that is the government involvement/collusion with Big Tech; but at least in this case, clearly with an eye – if not both eyes – on the bottom line, these companies want the First Amendment respected.
“It (the law) covers only the websites that minors like to use regularly, effectively punishing those users – and their favorite websites,” the filing reads, and accuses the law of doing this “in a manner wholly inconsistent with the First Amendment.”
In this case, it is the parents that should be able to decide what their children can access online, the lawsuit continues, adding that the plaintiffs believe that other ways to protect minors from online harms already exist.
And, these are built into their apps by the Big Tech platforms themselves, the two groups claim, citing various forms of restrictions that can be imposed from the apps’ settings.
Florida AG Moody’s office stated they are at this time reviewing the lawsuit – but that Moody will, “as a mother, fight aggressively in court to ensure the ability to protect Florida children.”
