Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) asked the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday to remove a preliminary injunction on a Texas law requiring age verification before accessing many platforms, websites and digital services. Granting Paxton's request would reverse the previous ruling of the U.S. District Court for Western Texas. That court erred when it determined the law triggered strict scrutiny and labeled it “vague,” Paxton argued.
Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin (R) asked the U.S. District Court for Western Arkansas Monday to alter or amend its ruling that permanently enjoined a state social media safety act, claiming the court lacks authority to abolish a law, only block enforcement of it.
California Assembly members advanced privacy bills on geolocation data and AI transparency, while acknowledging there's still work ahead to address opponents' concerns during a livestreamed Assembly Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday. The committee advanced the bills to the Appropriations Committee.
Louisiana lawmakers lambasted videogame industry opposition Monday to a bill creating a duty of care for online platforms with minor users. At a livestreamed hearing, the state’s House Civil Law Committee voted unanimously by voice to clear HB-37 with amendments. At a separate hearing, the House Commerce Committee decided to wait for a week to vote on an app store age-verification bill (HB-570) to allow for more negotiation with tech companies.
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier (R) sued social media platform Snap for violating a kids social media law and the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act (FDUTPA), his office announced Tuesday. Enacted last year, HB-3 prohibits kids 13 and younger from creating social media accounts and requires parental consent for 14- and 15-year-olds to create accounts, among other things.
A U.K. announcement regarding the upcoming GOV.UK wallet “sent shockwaves through the sector,” digital verification companies said in a Tuesday letter to Peter Kyle, secretary of state for science, innovation and technology.
Trade association NetChoice asked the U.S. District Court for Middle Tennessee on Thursday to follow the lead of the decision in NetChoice v. Yost and order a preliminary injunction on a law that requires age verification before a person can access social media. The Yost case, decided Wednesday, enjoined an Ohio law requiring age verification on First Amendment grounds (see 2504160049).
The 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday vacated a preliminary injunction against Mississippi’s age-verification law and remanded the case to the U.S. District Court for Southern Mississippi, citing the recent ruling in Moody v. NetChoice, LLC that “reframed the analysis for facial challenges.” The 5th Circuit said that the district court in the Mississippi case “should have undertaken more detailed factual analysis” before finding that trade association NetChoice was likely to succeed on its merits.
The Oklahoma Senate Technology and Telecommunications Committee cleared a pair of social media bills Thursday, despite their sponsors admitting the legislation needs work before coming to the floor. One bill addresses cyberbullying while the other is about age-verification, which many states have addressed this year (see 2501170053).
Lawmakers in the state legislature approved the bipartisan Arkansas Children and Teens' Online Privacy Protection Act Tuesday and the measure now heads to the governor's desk for signature. HB-1717 is modeled after the federal Children's Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) 2.0 (see 2503040037), and would ban tech companies from collecting, retaining and disclosing minors' data, except in a few situations.