A federal judge has ruled that social media companies cannot be required to block certain types of content from teenagers, meaning parts of a controversial social media law in Texas will no longer be enforceable.
The ruling comes after tech industry groups challenged a Texas law, the SCOPE (Children Online Protection through Enhanced Parental Empowerment Act), which imposes age verification requirements and other policies on how social media companies treat teenage users. But as The Verge points out, the measure also requires companies to “prevent minors from being exposed to harmful content,” including content that “glorifies” self-harm or drug abuse.
It was the latter requirement that was rejected, with the judge saying “states cannot pick and choose which categories of protected speech they want to block teenagers from discussing online.” The judge also criticized the language used in the law, writing in his decision that terms like “praise” and “promote” are “politically loaded” and “undefined.”
At the same time, the judge left intact other aspects of the law, such as age verification requirements and a ban on targeting ads to minors. NetChoice, a tech trade group that challenged the law, argues that measures like the Scope Act would require big tech companies to increase the amount of data they collect from minors.
The Texas law passed last year is one of many across the country that seek to change how social media platforms treat underage users. New York state recently passed two laws that limit social media companies’ data collection on teenage users and require parental consent for young users to access “additive” features such as algorithmic feeds. The California state legislature also recently passed a bill that would require social media companies to limit notifications to minors and restrict the use of “additive” algorithms, but it has not yet been signed by the governor.
