Broad restrictions on how Utah minors use social media that were passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Spencer Cox earlier this year are being challenged in federal court.
NetChoice, representing and lobbying for a coalition of big tech companies, has filed a lawsuit seeking to block the regulations from going into effect next year. The Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes and Divison of Consumer Protection Director Katherine Hass as defendants.
Utah politicians have said they expected a fight over the legislation.
The plaintiffs allege Utah’s social media regulations violate First Amendment protections for freedom of speech, the Fourteenth Amendment’s Equal Protection Clause and federal law.
While well-intentioned, NetChoice says Utah’s regulations unconstitutionally restrict the ability of minors and adults in the state to access content that otherwise would be legal.
“The Act restricts who can express themselves, what can be said, and when and how speech on covered websites can occur, down to the very hours of the day minors can use covered websites,” the lawsuit reads. “The First Amendment, reinforced by decades of precedent, allows none of this.”
The governor has made protecting children from the harms of social media one of his signature issues, pointing to studies that show social media may be a contributing factor to an increase in depression and suicide among youth.
“This is something that is killing our kids,” Cox said in a March news conference.
Chris Marchese, director of the NetChoice Litigation Center, says lawmakers are right to be concerned about those issues, but they can’t run roughshod over constitutional protections.
“No social media law is as overburdensome and restrictive as this,” Marchese said. “There’s no comparison to Utah’s expansive and almost complete government control on how Utahns access the internet.”
Two pieces of legislation, SB152 and HB311, comprise the Utah Social Media Regulation Act. The new laws…
