NetChoice Urges 10th Circuit to Halt Utah Age-Verification Regulation
NetChoice filed a brief on Tuesday asking the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to side with a district court’s previous ruling and block the Utah attorney general from enforcing a law regulating social media and minors on First Amendment and privacy grounds.
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The trade association argued in case 24-4100 that “requiring age-verification before disseminating protected speech significantly burdens minors’ and adults’ access to speech,” and “will require many covered websites to essentially ‘card’ everyone (including adults) that wants to use the website.”
SB-194, or The Utah Minor Protection in Social Media Act, requires that social media companies implement an age-assurance system to determine whether account users in Utah are minors. If a user is a minor, default privacy settings must prioritize maximum privacy, offer supervisory tools and establish parental controls.
NetChoice filed its original complaint in case 23-000911, alleging the Act’s age-verification requirements are a breach of people’s privacy and personal information, and that it impedes minors’ ability to engage in constitutionally protected speech (see 2312180054).
The district court’s Magistrate Judge Cecilia Romero stayed NetChoice’s challenge of the Act at the U.S. District Court for Utah while the 10th Circuit considers an appeal (see 2410210010). The district court previously ruled in favor of a preliminary injunction against the law, which was set to take effect in October 2024 (see 2409110025).