TALLAHASSEE, Fla.—A portion of a Florida state law requiring age verification to access most social media networks was temporarily blocked Tuesday by a federal district judge who called the measure that is currently being enforced "likely facially unconstitutional."
The law in question is House Bill (HB) 3. As AVN previously covered, HB 3 is Florida's expansive age verification law that covers both social media platforms and adult sites.
Chief U.S. District Judge Mark E. Walker for the Northern District of Florida temporarily enjoined Section 1 of House Bill 3, which covers social media websites specifically. Section 2 of the act deals specifically with adult platforms, and currently remains in effect.
Two tech trade groups, NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA), sued Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier in a bid to block HB 3's provisions specific to preventing teenagers aged 14 and 15 years from accessing mainstream social media networks like Facebook, Snapchat and TikTok.
The case is called CCIA & NetChoice v. Uthmeier. Meta Platforms (Facebook, Instagram and WhatsApp), Alphabet (Google and YouTube), Reddit and X are members of NetChoice. Meta, Alphabet and other tech companies are members of CCIA. Both trade associations have members that are shared, including Amazon and Waymo.
Chris Marchese, NetChoice's director of litigation, called Judge Walker's decision "yet another affirmation that the government cannot control or censor online speech." Similarly, CCIA president and chief executive officer Matt Schruers said the "ruling vindicates our argument that Florida’s statute violates the First Amendment."