CCIA Urges Court to Permanently Block Fla. Social Media Kids Ban
The Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA) asked a federal court Tuesday to permanently block a Florida social media law that would prohibit kids 13 and younger from creating social media accounts through required age verification.
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The U.S. District Court for Northern Florida preliminarily enjoined HB-3 in June, ruling that it violated the First Amendment (see 2506030057). CCIA, which challenged the law with NetChoice in 2024, also alleges it poses privacy risks (see 2403250052 and 2410280021).
When the court concluded that HB-3 likely violated the First Amendment, it joined “the judicial consensus across the country that such laws are unconstitutional,” CCIA said. Now, the court should grant “summary judgement on [CCIA’s] First Amendment claim, enter a declaratory judgement that HB3 is unconstitutional on its face and as applied, and convert its preliminary injunction into a permanent injunction.”
The U.S. Supreme Court recently found that requiring adults to verify their ages "‘is a burden on the exercise of’ their First Amendment rights,” added CCIA: “By forcing adults to surrender sensitive personal information to access protected speech or forgo that First Amendment activity altogether," age-verification requirements discourage users from accessing speech online and bar others from doing so.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier (R) appealed the preliminary injunction to the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals (see 2506040047). The AG has also argued that HB-3 is not preempted by the federal Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act, that CCIA’s 14th Amendment claims fail and that the association cannot bring claims on behalf of its members (see 2508220020).