Judge denies preliminary injunction against California social media law
The case was brought by Meta, TikTok, YouTube and Google claiming 1st amendment violations
Special Projects Producer
SAN FRANCISCO —
A preliminary injunction filed by TikTok, Meta, YouTube and Google aimed at stopping California from enforcing a social media safety law has been denied.
The case, filed in November, claimed that California’s “Protecting Our Kids from Social Media Addiction Act”, or SB 976, violated the First Amendment. The law is designed to protect kids from harmful, addictive social media algorithms.
(Previous coverage in the video above.)
The companies argued that the law “unconstitutionally burdens plaintiff’s and their users’ free speech rights.” The state argued that the feeds “serve as ‘passive receptacles’ of third-party speech or as ‘dumb pipes’ that merely emit what they are fed.”
The judge ruled that the companies did not show that their personalized feeds convey an expressive message or reflect human editorial judgment and as such the First Amendment challenge had failed.
While the preliminary injunction was denied, the case is not over. For now, the state may enforce the law as written. The companies’ case will move forward arguing for a permanent injunction, if they can make a strong argument that the law violates their First Amendment rights.
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