Censorship
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 Social Media Bill (S2581)
Would bar under-14s from social media in Massachusetts and check the age of everyone to enforce it. The House and Senate passed rival versions and now have to reconcile them.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
California SB 976 (Addictive Feeds)
Bans personalized feeds for minors without parental consent, which means platforms have to work out who is a minor.
UK Representation of the People Bill
The elections bill drawing proposals for election speech controls: broadcast-style restrictions on social media, polling-day reporting bans, and platforms told to prioritize approved media.
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.
UK Children's Wellbeing and Schools Act 2026
The schools bill that became the vehicle for VPN bans and device scanning. Those fell out; the power for ministers to impose online restrictions by regulation survived.
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.
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.
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.
Georgia SB 351 (Social Media)
Bars under-16s from social media without a parent's consent and requires age verification, blocked by a federal court the month before it was to start.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
Missouri AG Rule 15 CSR 60-18
Missouri's adult-content age check written not as a statute but as an Attorney General rule, and drawn wide enough to name social media.
Florida HB 3 (Social Media)
Bars under-14s from social media and requires parental consent for 14- and 15-year-olds, enforced now while the courts fight over it.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
TAKE IT DOWN Act
The deepfake takedown law with a 48-hour clock, no encryption exception, and the FTC now sending warning letters.
Kids Online Safety Act (KOSA)
Would make platforms police content for minors, which in practice pushes them to age-verify every user.
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.