Federal judge halts Georgia law restricting youth access to social media

A federal judge issued a preliminary injunction Thursday against enforcement of a Georgia law that sought to limit social media companies access to children The Protecting Georgia s Children on Social Media Act sailed through the General Assembly with broad bipartisan help and was a top priority for Republican Lt Gov Burt Jones But Amy Totenberg a federal judge for the Northern District of Georgia revealed the industry-backed plaintiff in the event was likely to prevail on contends that the law violates the First Amendment s speech protections To restrict speech the authorities must have a compelling interest that is narrowly tailored the judge s order says But this law had flawed tailoring she wrote and it curbs the speech rights of Georgia s youth while imposing an immense potentially intrusive burden on all Georgians who wish to engage in the majority of central computerized citizens forum of the twenty-first century The plaintiff a group called NetChoice represents a who s who of social media companies Including Facebook and Instagram parent company Meta YouTube Reddit X and Pinterest Free expression doesn t end where regime anxiety begins mentioned Chris Marchese NetChoice s litigation director Parents not politicians should guide their children s lives online and offline and no one should have to hand over a executive ID to speak in digital spaces NetChoice had urged Gov Brian Kemp to veto the bill last year asserting that it was unconstitutional But Kemp signed the provision which required social media companies to make commercially reasonable efforts to verify users age and mandated parent consent for those under It also banned advertising to children Supporters had cited numerous studies that uncovered social media posed notable danger to young people particularly girls increasing their pitfall of suicide Among Judge Totenberg s criticisms was the age verification provision that she declared imposes severe burdens on all Georgians The judge noted that NetChoice has challenged similar laws in at least eight other states including Texas Ohio Arkansas California Utah Florida Mississippi and Tennessee Nearly all of those state laws are at present enjoined on a preliminary or permanent basis she added The post Federal judge halts Georgia law restricting youth access to social media appeared first on Rough Draft Atlanta