The 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals scheduled oral argument on NetChoice's challenge of a Utah age-verification law for Nov. 20 at 9 a.m. MT.
Social Media
Social media platforms are facing intense scrutiny over how they collect, share and monetize user data. As new state and federal laws focus on age verification, parental controls and transparency requirements, social media companies face legal risks around algorithmic targeting, third-party tracking and children's safety. This page follows key legislation, investigations and lawsuits shaping privacy practices for major social platforms.
A California bill to set notification deadlines for data breaches passed the Senate unanimously on Thursday and could be headed to the governor’s desk soon. The Senate passed SB-446 on May 28 and it’s been sailing through the Assembly on consent agendas since then (see 2508200033). Meanwhile, state fiscal hawks advanced many privacy and AI bills, while holding back some others, at committee meetings Friday.
Political parties must be guided by data protection rules during election campaigns, the Norwegian data protection authority said Thursday.
The as-applied challenges and vagueness challenge in NetChoice's amended complaint in a case against a Tennessee age-verification law should be dismissed, argued Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti Tuesday. In case 3:24-cv-01191, NetChoice argued the statute violates the First Amendment and other privacy measures (see 2501170070), but the U.S. District Court for Middle Tennessee declined to preliminarily enjoin HB-1891 in June (see 2506200017).
An Ohio law requiring websites targeting children younger than 18 to obtain parental consent before engaging in contracts with minors is not a violation of the First Amendment, said a bipartisan coalition of 31 states plus the District of Columbia in a joint amicus brief to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals Tuesday. Later that day, South Carolina filed a document joining the coalition in asking the court to reverse a district court's 2024 decision to block the law (see 2402130041).
Organizations providing content accessible to kids “should prepare for greater legal and regulatory scrutiny,” said an IAPP analysis on age assurance published Monday.
Parents who share photos and videos of their children on social media for "sharenting" shouldn't because it creates risks to their kids, French data protection agency CNIL said Monday.
The need to succeed in AI must happen “without sacrificing the well-being of our kids in the process," said a bipartisan coalition of 44 state and territory attorneys general in a Monday letter to several Big Tech organizations. The AGs notified the companies, including Anthropic, Apple, Chai AI, Google, Luka, Meta, Microsoft, Nomi AI, Open AI, Perplexity AI, Replika and Xai, that they “will be held accountable for [their] decisions.”
Bluesky's decision to block Mississippi IP addresses from its social media platforms highlights the inefficiencies and problems that come with age-verification laws, said consumer privacy and tech industry officials. After the U.S. Supreme Court allowed the state age-verification law to stand last week (see 2508140048), Bluesky announced its response in a statement Friday (see 2508220047).
The Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) fails to establish how federal law preempts a state social media law that would prohibit kids 13 and younger from creating social media accounts, Florida argued Thursday in asking a federal court to dismiss some of the organization's amended complaint in case 4:24-cv-00438.