NetChoice, Utah Exchange Letters in Case Over Constitutionality of Age-Verification Law
NetChoice and the Utah attorney general exchanged letters Tuesday and Wednesday in a case that challenges a state law requiring age assurance for social media account holders is legal.
Sign up for a free preview to unlock the rest of this article
Privacy Daily provides accurate coverage of newsworthy developments in data protection legislation, regulation, litigation, and enforcement for privacy professionals responsible for ensuring effective organizational data privacy compliance.
The Utah Minor Protection in Social Media Act requires that social media platforms determine whether a user is a minor. If so, maximum privacy settings are required by default, as well as parental control options (see 2505270050). NetChoice has argued the law infringes on privacy and First Amendment rights in case 24-4100(see 2312180054).
In a letter filed Tuesday at the 10th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the attorney general argued that NetChoice’s attempt to liken NetChoice v. Brown to NetChoice v. Murrill is “not persuasive.” While Louisiana’s law may be content-based, Utah’s isn't, so the comparison is inaccurate, it said.
On Wednesday in response, the trade association's filing discussed a Florida case, Computer and Communications Industry Association v. Uthmeier, and its relevance to the situation in Utah. Though the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals lifted a block of the Florida law banning those 13 and younger from having social media accounts (see 2511260042) in a 2-1 ruling, the “divided, interim stay-posture decision … supports many of NetChoice’s arguments in this case challenging” the Utah law, NetChoice said.
But, the trade association said, the Florida and Utah laws are different, so applying the same level of intermediate scrutiny is “inapposite." Nor is the 11th Circuit panel decision “precedential -- even on the Eleventh Circuit,” as there is an appeal (see 2512110053), the letter said.
The 10th Circuit held a hearing in the case in November, where the panel grilled parties on content-based restrictions (see 2511200049).