Censorship
Every bill we’re tracking on censorship, with clear summaries of its provisions, status, and effects.
Utah SB 73 (VPN Age Verification)
Utah's update to its adult-site age check law counts anyone physically in Utah as a Utah user even behind a VPN, bans sites from explaining VPNs, and adds a 2% tax on adult content sales.
Colorado HB24-1136 (Social Media Warnings)
Ordered social media platforms to push state-scripted warning pop-ups at under-18 users, struck down by a federal court as compelled speech.
JAWBONE Act
The Cruz-Wyden bill that lets Americans sue the government for pressuring platforms to censor them, whether or not the censorship worked, with the pressure itself logged in public.
UK Representation of the People Bill
Would expand voter registration and election rules; Commons proposals for additional social-media election controls were not called before the bill moved to the Lords.
UK Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026
Gives ministers a standing route to impose age gates, curfews, and feature restrictions across the internet after Parliament nearly approved VPN checks and device scanning.
California Under-16 Social Media Ban (AB 1709)
Uses California's device-level age system to decide who may use ordinary social-media features, forcing an age check onto everyone in the name of restricting under-16s.
California Companion Chatbot Safety Bill (SB 1119)
Forces chatbot services to age-classify every user or put everyone into a state-defined child mode, tying private conversations to California's growing identity system.
California Age-Estimation and Child Design Law (AB 2246)
Orders services likely to attract children to estimate users' ages or treat everyone as a child, turning a law advertised as privacy protection into another mass-classification mandate.
California Social Media Child-Injury Liability Law (AB 2)
Uses vague negligence claims and damages of up to $1 million per child to pressure large platforms into suppressing lawful content and identifying which users are minors.
Sunset Section 230 Act (H.R. 10332)
Would repeal Section 230 and make hosting other people's speech a legal hazard, driving forums and independent sites toward mass deletion, surveillance, or closure.
Australia Digital Duty of Care (Consultation Draft)
A government consultation draft combining social-media feed choice with broader online-safety duties enforced by eSafety.
HOMEFRONT Act of 2026
Would block US enforcement and government assistance for foreign censorship orders targeting constitutionally protected speech, while giving American targets a federal remedy.
RESET Act / GUARDIAN Act
Amended in subcommittee to require parental consent for processing under-16s' data, raising concerns about age checks and online privacy.
California Worship Buffer-Zone Bill (AB 2664)
Makes it a crime within 100 feet of a place of worship to approach within eight feet without consent to leaflet, display a sign, protest, or educate.
Tennessee HB 1891 (Social Media)
Makes social media platforms verify the age of every account holder in Tennessee and get a parent's consent before anyone under 18 can sign up.
Missouri Adult-Site Age Verification (HB 1839 and 15 CSR 60-18)
Missouri first imposed its adult-content ID check by Attorney General rule, then put the same checkpoint into state law through HB 1839.
GRANITE Act
Would block US courts from enforcing foreign censorship orders and let Americans seek a federal declaration that those demands are unenforceable.
New York S895B (Stop Hiding Hate Act)
New York makes large social media companies file twice-yearly reports with the attorney general on how they define and police hate speech, misinformation, extremism, harassment and foreign political interference.
Virginia SB 854 (Social Media)
Makes social media platforms screen every Virginia user's age and holds under-16s to one hour a day, now blocked by a federal court.
New Zealand Social Media Minimum Age Bill
New Zealand's under-16 ban would cover any platform with recommender feeds, endless scroll, likes, or disappearing stories, and would let a regulator order app stores and internet providers to cut the country off from a platform entirely.
California AB 2624 (“Stop Nick Shirley Act”)
Shields immigration-support workers' addresses but also expands liability over publishing their names, images, employment details, and other broadly defined personal information.
New Jersey Kids Code Act
New Jersey's version of California's design code sets strict defaults for users a platform knows are minors, and its broad definition of knowing gives platforms a reason to check ages.
Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA)
Would make platforms police content for minors, which in practice pushes them to age-verify every user.
Illinois HB 5511 (Device Age Signal and Minor Defaults)
Illinois makes device makers, operating systems and app stores ask a user's age at setup and pass that self-declared age to social media platforms as a signal, which then triggers default restrictions for minors.
AI Ads Act
Would ban "fraudulent" AI-made political ads, but with no carve-out for parody. Critics say it could catch obvious satire that courts protect.
New York SAFE for Kids Act
New York's ban on addictive feeds for minors. The attorney general's rules will decide how every New Yorker proves their age.
Texas SCOPE Act (HB 18)
Requires parental consent and content controls for under-18s on digital services, partly blocked by the courts. Separate from the Texas porn-site law.
AI Kill Switch Act (H.R. 9917)
Would force the largest commercial AI providers to build centralized controls that can identify and cut off users, restrict use patterns, or shut models down—requirements fundamentally at odds with open weights that people can run privately beyond a provider’s control.
Nebraska Age-Appropriate Online Design Code (LB 504)
Nebraska's kids code took effect in January, and the attorney general's power to sue over it switched on July 1.
UK National Security (State Threats) Bill
Ministers can designate organizations as tools of foreign states and prosecute support for them. Rammed through the whole Parliament in 29 days.
Massachusetts Addictive Feeds Bill (S.3175)
Massachusetts would switch off addictive feeds, autoplay, infinite scroll and overnight notifications for minors by default, and hand the attorney general the job of deciding how platforms work out who is a minor.
Maryland Kids Code (HB 603)
Maryland's copy of California's design code has been in force since 2024 while NetChoice tries to kill it in court.
Idaho HB 542 (Addictive Social Media)
Makes billion-dollar social media platforms estimate the age of Idaho users after heavy use, then treat anyone who reads as 16 or under as a child needing parental consent.
Iowa HF 864 (Adult-Site Age Verification)
Iowa requires sites and apps where a third or more of the content is pornographic for minors to verify users' ages, including through digital ID.
EU CSA Regulation (Chat Control 2.0)
The permanent plan to mandate scanning of private messages in Europe. Five trilogue rounds have failed on the same question: suspicionless scanning of encrypted communications.
North Carolina HB 301 (Social Media & AI Safety)
The Senate version of North Carolina HB 301 bans social media accounts for children under 14 and makes platforms verify users' ages, and the bill now sits in a conference committee.
New Jersey Online Age Verification Bill (A5305)
New Jersey would require websites and other online services carrying covered sexual material to verify every visitor is at least 18.
Canada Combatting Hate Act (C-9)
The speech-offense half of the dead Online Harms Act, passed on its own: a hate-crime offense with maximums up to life imprisonment, pre-crime peace bonds, and buffer offenses around places of worship and schools. In force since July 18.
NO FAKES Act
Creates a federal property right in your face and voice, with a notice-and-takedown system that lets any rights holder pull online content fast.
West Virginia HB 4412 (Adult-Site Age Verification)
West Virginia requires adult sites and apps to verify users are 18 or older, names WV Mobile ID as an approved method, and lets parents sue for $10,000 per incident.
Canada Bill C-34 (Safe Social Media Act)
Canada's under-16 social media ban plus a new Digital Safety Commission, with the operative details left to regulations. Keeping minors out means age ID checks on every adult.
Arizona HB 2991 (Social Media and App Store Age Checks)
Arizona's HB 2991 started as a social media and adult-site age check bill, then the Senate rewrote it into an app store and operating system age mandate before it stalled.
New York S.9051-B (AI Companion Age Checks)
New York's legislature passed a bill that locks the human-like features of AI companion chatbots until the operator has checked that the user is an adult.
Accountability for Government Censorship Act
Would force federal agencies to disclose their attempts to make platforms remove, suppress, label, or restrict access to lawful speech.
Oklahoma HB 1275 (Social Media Age Verification)
Oklahoma's House passed a bill that would have barred users under 16 from social media and made platforms verify the age of all account holders.
Connecticut SB 5 (Online Safety, Feed Age Checks)
Connecticut's online safety law bars personalized feeds for any user a platform has not checked is an adult, unless a parent consents, starting in 2028.
Minnesota HF 4138 (Addictive Social Media, Age Estimation)
Minnesota's addictive social media law makes platforms estimate account holders' ages from their activity and treat anyone they cannot place at 16 or older as a child.
New York Safe by Design Act (Age Checks for Social Features)
New York's Safe by Design Act blocks messaging, profile viewing, tagging and other core social features until a platform checks the user's age, and bans self-declared age.
Missouri HB 1887 (Megan Meier Act)
Missouri's House voted 145-3 to make social media platforms verify the age of all Missouri users before they open an account, and to bar under-16s from holding accounts of their own.
California SB 976 (Addictive Feeds)
Bans personalized feeds for minors without parental consent, which means platforms have to work out who is a minor.
New Hampshire SB 648 (Adult Site Age Verification)
New Hampshire's Senate passed a bill making commercial porn sites verify the age of visitors, and the House killed it in May 2026.
Michigan SB 757 (SAFE for Kids Act)
Michigan's SB 757 would bar personalized social media feeds for any user a platform has not age-checked or cleared with parental consent.
Arkansas Acts 900/901 (Social Media, 2025)
Arkansas lost on its first age-verification law, rewrote it as two new ones, and got both blocked again. Now the Eighth Circuit decides.
Alaska HB 47 (Social Media Age Check Amendment)
A House floor amendment turned Alaska's bill on AI-generated child abuse imagery into a social media age verification law, and a Senate committee cut those sections back out.
Massachusetts Under-14 Social Media Ban (H.5366)
The House version would bar under-14s from social media outright, make platforms delete their accounts, require parental consent for 14 and 15 year olds, and ban phones in schools from bell to bell.
California Age-Appropriate Design Code
California's design-code law makes platforms estimate users' ages and reshape their products for minors. Courts have partly blocked it.
Wisconsin AB 105 / SB 130 (Age Verification)
Wisconsin's age-verification bill tried to make adult sites block VPN users. The VPN ban was stripped after backlash, then the whole bill died with the session.
Washington SB 5708 / HB 1834 (Addictive Feeds)
Washington's Attorney General-requested bill would have required addictive-feed services to estimate users' ages and withhold personalized feeds from anyone not shown to be an adult.
Georgia SB 351 (Social Media and Adult Sites)
Bars under-16s from social media without a parent's consent and makes adult sites verify every visitor's age. The social media half is blocked; the adult-site half is in force.
Australia Online Safety Act 2021
The law behind the eSafety Commissioner: takedown powers over global platforms, and industry codes now switching on age checks at search engines, app stores, and the devices themselves.
Indiana HEA 1408 (Social Media, Under-16 Consent)
Indiana's social media law makes large platforms keep estimating users' ages as they log hours, and shuts down under-16 accounts that lack parental consent.
South Carolina Age-Appropriate Design Code (H.3431)
The fifth state kids code, and the harshest: effective the day it was signed, treble damages, and personal liability for employees.
Mississippi HB 1126 (Social Media)
Requires age verification and parental consent to use social media, now in force after the Supreme Court declined to block it.
Australia Hate and Extremism Act 2026
Creates an executive blacklist for prohibited hate groups and criminalizes membership, recruitment, funding, and support, extending state power from violent acts to association and expression.
Australia Social Media Minimum Age Act
The world's first under-16 social media ban, in force: ten platforms must keep minors out or face fines near A$50 million, and parental consent is no defense.
Florida HB 3 (Social Media and Adult Sites)
Bars under-14s from social media, requires parental consent for 14- and 15-year-olds, and makes adult sites verify every visitor's age.
Alabama SB 186 (Device Filter, Age Asked at Setup)
Alabama requires new phones and tablets to ask the user's age at activation and to switch on an obscenity filter automatically when the stated age is under 18.
Michigan HB 4938 (ISP Filtering and VPN Ban)
Would force ISPs to filter the internet statewide and block VPNs, proxies, and encrypted tunnels. Parked in committee, but it is the blueprint.
California Election Deepfake Law (AB 2839)
California’s election-deepfake restrictions were held unconstitutional in August 2025; the permanent injunction bars enforcement against the named plaintiffs.
UK Online Safety Act
The broadest attack on free speech and privacy any Western democracy has passed: age checks to use the internet, a state regulator over online speech, criminal penalties for posts, and a standby power to scan private messages.
Texas HB 1181 (Age Verification)
Requires age verification to view adult content, the law the Supreme Court used to greenlight online ID checks.
Vermont Age-Appropriate Design Code (S.69)
Vermont's kids code, signed June 2025, takes effect January 2027 with the attorney general writing the rules now.
STOP CSAM Act
Would let platforms be sued for 'recklessly' hosting abuse material, which makes offering encryption itself the legal risk.
Connecticut HB 6857 (Social Media Feeds and Minors)
Connecticut's HB 6857 would have blocked personalized social media feeds for anyone a platform had not age-checked or cleared with parental consent.
Texas HB 186 (Under-18 Social Media Ban)
The Texas House voted to bar everyone under 18 from social media and to make platforms verify that new account holders are adults.
TAKE IT DOWN Act
The deepfake takedown law with a 48-hour clock, no encryption exception, and the FTC now sending warning letters.
Colorado SB25-201 (Age Checks for Online Sexual Materials)
Colorado's SB25-201 would have required adult sites to verify the age of every visitor and uploader, and it died when the Senate kept putting off a floor vote.
Arkansas Social Media Safety Act (SB 396)
Arkansas's social media age-verification law, struck down in full as unconstitutional. The state came back with a rewrite.
Kids Off Social Media Act (KOSMA)
Would ban under-13s from social media and require platforms to know users' ages to enforce it.
Canada Bill C-63 (Online Harms Act)
The bill that would have created a Digital Safety Commission, life sentences for speech offenses, and pre-crime peace bonds for things not yet said. It died with Trudeau's prorogation, and its halves came back separately.
EARN IT Act
Strips platforms of liability protection in a way that pressures them to break end-to-end encryption.
Australia Misinformation Bill (Withdrawn)
Would have made a government regulator the referee of truth online, with platforms fined over 'misinformation' while government and professional media content was exempt. Withdrawn when the Senate votes were not there.
Connecticut SB 3 (Online Privacy & Minors)
Adds child-safety and health-data rules to Connecticut's privacy law, with a vague harm-to-minors duty and account-deletion mandates the Attorney General enforces.
EU Digital Services Act
The EU's speech-control framework: state-certified 'trusted flaggers' whose reports platforms must prioritize, systemic-risk duties over lawful content, and a crisis switch, backed by fines of 6 percent of global revenue.
Canada Online Streaming Act (C-11)
Put the CRTC, Canada's broadcast regulator, over online streaming and audio platforms, with user-generated content pulled in through an exception to the exception.
EU Terrorist Content Online Regulation
Any EU member state's authority can order any platform to remove 'terrorist content' within one hour, no court involved, cross-border, with proactive measures for repeat targets.
Suggest a bill or correction
Know a bill we should track, or spot something out of date? Email the bill name, the jurisdiction and a link to an official source.