Permanently struck down as unconstitutional, March 2025
Arkansas Social Media Safety Act (SB 396)
BadDefeatedArkansas SB 396 (Act 689)
Arkansas, United States
Arkansas, United StatesStruck down as unconstitutional (March 2025)High threat
Arkansas's social media age-verification law, struck down in full as unconstitutional. The state came back with a rewrite.
What it does
The Social Media Safety Act made social media companies verify the age of every user and get parental consent for minors. A federal court held it violated the First Amendment in every application and permanently blocked it.
Why it matters
This is the clearest court win against age verification so far: struck down for all users, not just narrowed. It shows these laws can be beaten in court, and other challenges cite it.
Our take
A rare clean loss for the age-checking crowd. A federal judge threw the law out entirely on free-speech grounds. Arkansas did not give up, though, and passed a rewritten version now facing the same fight, so this moved to round two.
Timeline
Votes
- House — Final passage (82 to 10) · April 5, 2023
- Senate — Final passage (21 to 3) · April 6, 2023