Report from Courthouse News Service
In Brief – US District Judge Edward Davila responded to a motion to enjoin California’s Protecting Our Kids from Social Media Addiction Act by blocking some provisions, rejecting the motion to block some sections, and granting an injunction pending appeal of the entire statute until February 1, 2025, to allow the US Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals to consider an appeal. The law, challenged by NetChoice, a trade group representing several large social media companies that has successfully challenged a large number of state laws imposing restrictions and regulations on social media companies, bans online platforms from using personalized recommendation algorithms to display content to people under age 18, set limits on when minors are allowed to use social media, and restrict the hours when social media companies can send minors notifications, unless parents consent for the platforms to do otherwise. Judge Davila’s order did enjoin the law’s requirement that platforms report the number of minor users; however the state could start enforcing the portions of the law concerning algorithmic feeds, rejecting the argument that algorithms governing the operations of social media platform are themselves expressive content.
Context – Several states have enacted laws aimed at regulating social media platforms based on allegations that social media is addictive and harmful to teens. Those state laws have been paused by federal courts based on a range of 1st Amendment and privacy arguments. The same allegations are also powering lawsuits against large social media companies in federal and California courts. The lawsuits have been having more luck than the new laws, at least until Davila’s ruling. Although the lack of solid evidence of a causal link between teen social media use and negative mental health remains an important issue, in this case what is most noteworthy is Davila’s interesting application of the Supreme Court’s recent ruling in Moody v NetChoice. A majority on the High Court said that social media content sorting algorithms are clearly expressive content, which Davila used to argue that other social media algorithms and practices are likely not similarly protected.