LITTLE ROCK (AP) — A tech industry trade group sued Arkansas on Thursday challenging a new state law that requires parental permission for minors to create social media accounts.
NetChoice, a group whose members include Facebook parent Meta, TikTok and Twitter, filed a federal lawsuit over the measure signed by Republican Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders in April. The law requires social media companies to contract with third-party vendors to perform age verification checks on new users. The requirement is set to go into effect on Sept. 1.
The lawsuit argues that the new requirement violates the constitutional rights of users and singles out types of speech that would be restricted.
“S.B. 396 imposes onerous obligations on ‘social media companies’ that severely burden both minors’ and adults’ First Amendment rights to speak, listen, and associate without government interference on the widely used online services that it covers,” the lawsuit said.
Arkansas’ law is similar to a first-in-the-nation restriction that was signed into law earlier this year in Utah. That law is not set to take effect until March 2024. NetChoice last year filed a lawsuit challenging a California law requiring tech companies to put kids’ safety first by barring them from profiling children or using personal information in ways that could harm children physically or mentally.
The law is being challenged as social media companies have faced increasing scrutiny over their platforms’ effect on teen mental health, one of the concerns Sanders cited as she pushed for the legislation.
Last month, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy warned that there is not enough evidence to show that social media is safe for children and teens and called on tech companies to take “immediate action to protect kids now.” Meta on Tuesday announced it was adding some new parental supervision tools and privacy features to its platforms.
The state earlier this year filed lawsuits against Meta and TikTok, claiming the social media companies misled consumers about the safety of children on their platforms and the protection of users’ private data.
Arkansas’ restrictions would only apply to social media platforms that generate more than $100 million in annual revenue. It also wouldn’t apply to certain platforms, including LinkedIn, Google and YouTube.
The lawsuit says the distinctions the measure makes between types of platforms that must adher”Meta has publicly misled consumers about the addictive nature of their products,” Griffin said. “Specifically, they intentionally employ algorithms that are addictive to adolescents and are rewiring how our children think, feel and behave. Instead of communicating the nature of these algorithms to the public, they actively conceal the nature of their products in pursuit of profits and growth.”
Two other lawsuits were filed against TikTok and its Chinese parent company ByteDance.
“The first lawsuit targets TikTok and ByteDance for misleading the public about the availability of adult content to teenage users,” Griffin said. “Specifically, they market their app as appropriate for teenage users while offering an abundance of posts that contain mature themes, nudity and drugs, all of which is readily available to minors.”
The second lawsuit takes on TikTok’s claims that user data is not accessible by the government of China and the Chinese Communist Party.
“TikTok is deceiving the public regarding the harmful content it is putting in the hands of our kids, and it is deceiving the public about its ties to the Chinese Communist Party,” Griffin said. “Protecting Arkansas’s youth is my highest calling, and I look forward to the fight.”
Just last week, TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew was grilled by Congress on a range of issues related to its ties to the Chinese Communist Party.
“TikTok surveils us all and the Chinese Communist Party is able to use this as a tool to manipulate America as a whole,” Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., said. “We do not trust TikTok will ever embrace American values.”
Lawmakers have expressed fear that ByteDance provides user data to China’s ruling Communist Party because it’s based in Beijing, prompting calls for a ban on the streaming app.
“I’m one that doesn’t really believe that there’s a private sector in China,” Rep. Anna Eshoo, D-Calif., said.
