Lawsuits target Assembly Bill 1709
The tech companies’ legal challenge provides the most direct pushback against California’s attempt to regulate how platforms present content to minors. Google, Meta, and TikTok filed separate lawsuits in San Jose, San Francisco, and Los Angeles to prevent the enforcement of Assembly Bill 1709. The law aims to reduce addiction risks for children under 16 by banning "psychologically exploitative features" like personal recommendations and video autoplay. These platforms must also delete the accounts of underage children that use those specific features. The lawsuits from Google, Meta, and TikTok argue the law wrongly compels them to honor California’s preferred ways of presenting content to children and substitutes the state’s judgment for that of parents. Governor Gavin Newsom signed the law on 10 September, and it takes effect on 1 January 2027, unless a judge voids it or puts it on hold. Google is a unit of Alphabet, Meta owns Facebook and Instagram, and TikTok is a unit of ByteDance.
Arguments on free speech and safety
The companies’ legal arguments regarding free speech and the First Amendment provide the most significant basis for their challenge. The companies argue the law violates the US Constitution’s first amendment free speech protections and Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act. Jose Castaneda, a Google spokesperson, said on Thursday that "overly broad laws like this actually break the systems we’ve built to help kids find high-quality, age-appropriate videos." Meta said California cannot override its editorial judgments regarding how it curates and displays billions of posts. TikTok stated that protected speech "cannot be suppressed solely to protect the young from ideas or images that a legislative body thinks unsuitable." Attorney General Rob Bonta, who is the only defendant, said his office is reviewing the lawsuits and remains committed to defending California’s laws to protect kids online.
The Electronic Frontier Foundation called the law a "massive privacy and free speech nightmare" as many US states and countries like Australia already regulate social media access. This legal battle follows an August agreement where Meta paid up to $18bn to settle claims with nearly all US states regarding privacy and consumer protection. Google also faces a separate lawsuit from California parents alleging a teen made plans to end her life after interacting with an AI mode on Google Search via a school-issued Chromebook. The company also recently had to backtrack on its decision to cut off a school’s access to Google Search if teachers or administrators decided not to enable Google’s other AI features for schools. Google, Meta, and Snap still face thousands of lawsuits from individuals and municipalities claiming they sought to addict children and caused a mental health crisis.
