Constitutional Law
Dec. 8, 2025
Free speech should not endanger minors
A year after California passed SB 976 to curb minors' social-media addiction, a wave of First Amendment lawsuits from tech giants now pits the state's effort to limit algorithm-driven "addictive feeds" against platforms' claims that their curated content is protected speech.
Anne P. Mitchell
Anne P. Mitchell is an attorney, dean emeritus (cyberlaw and cyber security) at Lincoln Law School, and CEO of the Institute for Social Internet Public Policy.
Gov. Gavin Newsom signed SB 976, the "Protecting Our Kids from Social Media Addiction Act" into law just over a year ago. Since then, it's been blocked from taking effect while mired in lawsuits. First it was the lawsuit brought by trade association NetChoice, whose members include Google, Meta and X. This month, Google, Meta and TikTok also filed individual lawsuits after the 9th Circuit ruled mostly in the state's favor saying, among other things, that NetChoice didn't have...
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