GOOGLE, META AND TIKTOK SUE CALIFORNIA TO BLOCK CHILDREN’S SOCIAL MEDIA LAW

Google, Meta and TikTok have filed separate lawsuits seeking to block a California law intended to limit compulsive social media use among children under 16. The companies argue that Assembly Bill 1709 violates the US Constitution’s First Amendment and Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act. They say California wrongly compels them to follow the state’s preferred approach to presenting content and substitutes its judgement for parents’ decisions. “The state cannot, consistent with the First Amendment, override Meta's editorial judgments,” Meta wrote in its complaint.

Assembly Bill 1709 prohibits platforms from offering children “psychologically exploitative features”, including personalised recommendations and video autoplay, that could encourage compulsive use. It also requires platforms to delete children’s accounts containing those features. Gavin Newsom signed the legislation on 10 September, saying California “will not stand by while unregulated technology puts our children at risk”. The nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation unsuccessfully urged Newsom to veto the law, calling it “a massive privacy and free speech nightmare”.

The law takes effect on 1 January 2027 unless a judge blocks or overturns it. The office of California attorney general Rob Bonta, the sole defendant, said on Thursday that it was reviewing the lawsuits and remained committed to defending California’s laws protecting children online. Google spokesperson Jose Castaneda said on Thursday: “Parents are best positioned to make the right decisions for their families”. Google, Meta and TikTok also face thousands of lawsuits from individuals, school districts, cities and government bodies alleging that their platforms addict children and harm their mental health.