The Supreme Court will allow Mississippi to enforce a law that requires social media sites to verify the age of the users or receive the consent of the parents, while the law awaits legal challenge – but Judge Brett Kavanaugh seemed skeptical that the law is constitutional.
Key facts
The judges refused to impose a suspension, which would have blocked the application of the law while a case is resolved on their legality.
The law, approved in 2024, is the subject of a lawsuit filed by Netchoice, a commercial organization that represents companies such as Meta, YouTube, X and Snapchat.
Kavanaugh said that the group “showed that it would probably succeed on the fund” of the case, pointing out that the law would probably “violate the rights of the first amendment of its members.”
However, Kavanaugh said the organization did not show that its members would suffer sufficient damage to justify a suspension.
Netchoice described Thursday’s decision as an “unfortunate procedural delay,” but he remained optimistic about long -term success: “The concurrent opinion of Judge Kavanaugh makes it clear that Netchice will finally succeed in the defense of the first amendment – not only in this case, but in all the demands of Netchoice on identification to speak,” said Paul Taske, co -director of the organization, In a statement to Forbes.
This is a development news and will be updated.
Find out: social networks and videos are the main news source of 44% of young people
Key history
Mississippi approved the Draft HB 1126 in 2024, which requires that the digital service providers sites verify the age of the users or receive consent from the parents. It also requires that these sites implement a strategy to prevent known minors being exposed to “harmful material,” including issues such as drugs, suicide, self -injuries, eating disorders, harassment, sexual exploitation and other “illegal activities.” Netchoice quickly filed a lawsuit to stop its implementation, arguing that these requirements violated the rights of freedom of expression of the first amendment. “The law would replace the voluntary (and extensive) efforts of ‘moderation of content’ of the sites covered to address objectable speeches with censorship imposed by the State,” wrote the lawyers of Netchouize, arguing that the broad categories described in the law could be interpreted as applicable to “everything, from classical literature such as Romeo and Julieta and The Bell Jar, to the Bell Jar Taylor Swift. ” District Judge Halil Suleyman Ozerden blocked that Mississippi would implement the law in 2024, but the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals lifted the judicial order without comments in July.
Parallel
Although Judge Kavanaugh indicated that at least some conservative judges of the High Court could fail against the Mississippi Law, the Supreme Court recently ratified another age verification law. In June, the six conservative judges ratified a Texas Law that demands that adult websites such as Pornhub verify the age of users. At least 22 states are enforcing some type of age verification law for adult websites, according to Free Speech Coalition, while three others have laws that will soon enter into force.
This article was originally published by Forbes US
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