Google, Meta and TikTok sue to block California youth social media law

Google, Meta, and TikTok have sued California to block the enforcement of a state law meant to protect children from getting addicted to social media.

SCOTT SIMON, HOST:

Google, Meta and TikTok sued the state of California this week to block a new law aimed at shielding youngsters from features of addictive social media. KQED's Rachael Myrow joins us. She's senior editor of member station KQED's Silicon Valley News Desk. And before we begin, we should note that Google is among NPR's financial supporters. Rachael, thanks so much for being with us.

RACHAEL MYROW, BYLINE: Thank you for having me.

SIMON: First, please remind us about the law these companies are suing over. It was only signed in September - hasn't gone into effect yet. What's it supposed to do?

MYROW: The law goes into effect in January. It prohibits social media platforms from offering children under 16 things like personalized feeds and autoplay for videos. It also requires the deletion of children's accounts with those features. So in separate lawsuits filed in San Francisco, San Jose and Los Angeles, Meta, Google and TikTok respectively said the law wrongly compels them to honor California's preferred means of presenting content to children and substitutes the state's judgment for that of parents.

They also said the law violates First Amendment free-speech protections, as well as Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act. That broadly shields online platforms from liability over user content. The California attorney general's office wrote me that it is reviewing the lawsuits, adding, quote, "our office is committed to defending California's commonsense laws to protect kids online."

SIMON: And, Rachael, I gather there are groups and individuals in the state who oppose this law when it's passed. What's been their reaction?

MYROW: Well, one law professor here in Silicon Valley I talked to argued AB 1709 is filled with censorship problems. He's particularly worried about what I mentioned earlier - that the law requires these companies to delete children's accounts if the platforms refuse to withdraw the features that make them so addictive. From his perspective, that deprives those children of the ability to publish their own speech in really what has become the public square. Meta and TikTok echoed those arguments in email statements to KQED.

I also talked to the digital rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation, which also lobbied in Sacramento against the bill. They want to see a comprehensive privacy law at the federal level that limits the data social media companies can collect, sell and use to hook consumers. The group isn't pro-Big Tech, but they don't like this law.

SIMON: And, Rachael, what do supporters of the law say?

MYROW: I spoke with Jim Steyer of the children's advocacy group Common Sense Media, which sponsored the bill the lawsuits target. He is also a big mover and shaker in Sacramento, sometimes partnering with Big Tech, though more often not. He says there's a wave of outrage against the social media platforms over the ways they allegedly damage children and young people. That outrage has taken several forms - this law, but also thousands of lawsuits, some filed by attorneys general, some by individual families.

JIM STEYER: The public and the attorneys general are outraged at the behavior of the big social media and AI platforms, and now they're winning. They're winning big. And so the companies are trying to delay the inevitable, defer the settlements, minimize the settlements and somehow try to explain after the fact that they aren't really liable for all the damages and all the harm they've caused to young people.

MYROW: So these lawsuits, he says, fit right into that pattern.

SIMON: Rachael Myrow with member station KQED, thanks so much for being with us.

MYROW: My pleasure.

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