California Judge Blocks Parts Of Social Media Youth Protection Bill

Arthur T Knackerbracket has processed the following story:

While the majority of the bill was allowed to proceed, two elements were blocked over concerns that they may infringe tech companies' First Amendment rights.

A US district judge has blocked the state of California from enforcing parts of a bill aimed at safeguarding children and teenagers from social media, following a lawsuit filed by tech lobbying group NetChoice.

Senate Bill 976, also known as the Protecting Our Kids from Social Media Addiction Act, was initially passed in September of last year and prevents social media companies from purposely providing an addictive content feed to minors without the consent of their parents.

While judge Edward J Davila denied NetChoice's motion for an injunction to stop the law in its entirety - thus allowing most elements of the bill to come into effect - he did block some elements of the bill from proceeding after finding they may infringe tech companies' First Amendment rights.

Specifically, he blocked two elements of the bill: one that proposed restrictions on night-time notifications for minors and another that compelled social media companies to disclose the number of minors using their platforms.

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