Lawsuit filed over another social media law

We will continue to litigate about the last legislative session for a long time to come.

Two tech industry groups, the Computer and Communications Industry Association and NetChoice, filed a lawsuit Tuesday seeking to block a new Texas law that would require platforms like Instagram and Facebook to record the age of all users and obtain parental or guardian permission before allowing minors to create accounts.

Here’s what you need to know.

The background: In 2023, Texas lawmakers passed House Bill 18, better known as the Securing Children Online through Parental Empowerment Act, to restrict minors’ access to social media platforms and protect them from harmful content if they do access them.

State Rep. Shelby Slawson, Republican of Stephenville, sponsored the bill, saying its goal was to give parents more control over how minors’ information is collected and used by digital service providers, companies that operate websites, applications, programs or software that collect or process personally identifiable information.

Lawmakers said children’s overexposure to digital platforms has resulted in higher rates of self-harm, suicide, substance abuse, sexual exploitation, human trafficking and other mental health issues. “Texas parents have had enough,” Slawson said in a statement after the bill passed a House committee.

The law requires digital service providers to get permission from a parent or guardian before allowing a minor to create an account. And it forces those companies to give parents the ability to monitor a minor’s use of the digital platform. The law also requires social media platforms to come up with ways to prevent children from being exposed to “harmful” material, such as content that promotes self-harm or substance abuse.

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In their legal filing, the plaintiffs argue that HB 18 is unconstitutional and violates the First Amendment right to free speech because it forces websites to monitor and remove certain types of speech and restricts minors’ access to lawful speech.

Plaintiffs argue that parents already have tools to regulate whether and how their minor children use the Internet and that the companies they represent effectively moderate their content.

The legal filings were largely based on CCIA and NetChoice’s recent complaint against House Bill 20, a 2021 Texas law that would ban major social media companies from blocking users’ posts based on their political views.

“As in the last attempt, Texas has passed a law that targets disadvantaged online publishers and their dissemination of protected, valuable expression online,” the filing said.

I don’t have any previous coverage of HB18, but I’ve been following the lawsuit against HB20, which remains blocked after SCOTUS sent it back to the lower courts. There’s not much to this story, but NetChoice’s press release and this Twitter thread from their litigation director give a good idea of the grounds on which the lawsuit is being filed. I was initially a little skeptical of their claims, but the more I read, the more I’m inclined to agree that this law is broad and vague, and, given that it contains an SB8-style vigilante provision, will almost certainly result in restrictions on free speech. We’ll see what the courts say. The law is set to go into effect on September 1, so I expect a ruling on a temporary injunction to be made before then.