Report from MediaPost
In Brief – The US Court of Appeals for the 5th Circuit has cleared the way for Texas to enforce its App Store Accountability Act (SB 2420) that broadly expands age verification for online apps and requires app stores such as Apple and Google to verify users’ ages and obtain parental consent before teens under 18 can download apps or make in-app purchases. The appeals court panel did not explain its reasoning for lifting the lower-court injunction blocking the law. Texas argues that their measure is a consumer-protection and contract-regulation law, while opponents argue the statute violates the First Amendment by broadly restricting access to online speech.
Context – Last June, the Supreme Court ruled that states requiring that online porn websites use age verification tools to confirm users are adults does not violate the First Amendment, with six justices saying that ID checks were a long-established tool to protect young people from harms and they should not be prohibited solely because they are applied online. In parallel to the fight over age checks for online porn, many states were passing laws regulating how social media platforms served teens. Most have been blocked by federal judges over First Amendment concerns. However, within a month of the High Court’s decision on porn age checks, a 5th Circuit Court of Appeals panel overruled a district judge and allowed a Mississippi law regulating social media platforms based on age to go into effect, and the US Supreme Court rejected an emergency appeal. So, the 5th Circuit following form on Texas’s law is not a shock. Justice Kavanaugh issued a concurring opinion related to the initial Mississippi law in which he concisely summarized why all the similar state social media laws have been blocked, and why he suspects Mississippi’s eventually will be as well. Nevertheless, panels of the 11th Circuit and 9th Circuit have since followed suit, and the issue will likely reach the Supreme Court under regular order. The justices have been squirrely on internet cases, generally avoiding policy decisiveness, so who knows how this all plays out.