Bipartisan Group of 31 States Support Georgia Age-Verification Social Media Law
A Georgia law that would require age verification and parental consent for minors to create social media accounts is not content-based nor does it violate the First Amendment, said a bipartisan coalition of 31 states in an amicus brief Wednesday at the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
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After the U.S. District Court for Northern Georgia sided with industry representative NetChoice and blocked SB-351 (see 2506260054), Attorney General Christopher Carr (R) appealed the case to the 11th Circuit in July. NetChoice sued the AG in May, arguing the 2024 law poses digital safety and security risks in addition to violating the First Amendment (see 2505010024).
Yet the amicus brief argued the act’s definitions are “quintessentially content neutral,” as it “doesn’t target speech based on the topics discussed or ideas or messages conveyed; it can be applied without refencing any speech’s content, and there’s no argument or factual grounds suggesting Georgia adopted the law because of disagreement with any message conveyed.”
Additionally, the states' brief argued the district court failed to follow the reframed facial analysis as outlined in the Moody v. NetChoice ruling earlier this year (see 2504180013). They added that states have a compelling interest in protecting children from the harms of social media.