Tenn. AG: District Court Should Deny Injunction on Age-Verification Law Again
Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti (R) asked the U.S. District Court of Middle Tennessee on Monday again to deny NetChoice's preliminary injunction against a law requiring age verification to access social media accounts. Skrmetti argued the association's notice of supplemental authority concerns an unrelated data privacy law.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
"Netchoice’s attempted comparisons between the two laws do not hold up," Skrmetti added. He said the law applies to all social media platforms, regardless of message or content; only makes the platform verify users' age, not alter content based on age; and, since the Tennessee law is already in effect, NetChoice can't show irreparable harm. For these reasons, "this Court should deny NetChoice’s preliminary injunction motion."
Case 24-01191 began when NetChoice sued the attorney general in October on privacy and First Amendment grounds concerns about HB-1891, legislation requiring social media companies to verify the age of account holders and gain parental consent before users younger than 18 opened accounts (see 2501170070). NetChoice then filed a renewed motion for injunction on Jan. 16 and asked for a temporary restraining order (see 2501060056), which the court denied on Feb. 14 (see 2502180051). Skrmetti urged the court to deny the preliminary injunction on March 14, following the decision in CCIA & NetChoice v. Uthmeier (see 25031700061). NetChoice countered that on March 18, arguing that the ruling in the Uthmeier case “has no bearing here" (see 2503180053).