The lawsuit is the latest legal challenge to California’s social media restrictions.
Tech companies Google, Meta and Tik Tok sued the state of California on Wednesday to block a new law that prohibits companies from targeting children under 16 with “addictive” content on social media that can keep them scrolling for hours.
Assembly Bill 1709, introduced by Assemblyman Josh Lowenthal (D-Long Beach), prohibits social media sites from providing features such as autoplay and displaying recommended content to teens and young children.
The social media companies, which filed separate lawsuits in federal court, cited their free speech rights under the First Amendment and the Communications Decency Act, which protects online platforms from lawsuits related to content posted by third parties. Meta Platforms, along with Google and YouTube, filed the lawsuits in the Northern District of California. TikTok filed in the Central District.
California’s attempt to “appoint the state as editor, curator, and controller of online speech” and “override Meta’s editorial judgment on how to manage and display these billions of third-party speech posts” violates the U.S. Constitution, Meta’s lawyers wrote in their lawsuit. The tech company owns Instagram, Facebook and Threads.
A representative of Atty. Gen. Rob Bonta said his office was reviewing the dispute.
This lawsuit follows successful lawsuits brought against the tech giants by California and others, which resulted in massive civil settlements. At the same time, the tech industry continues to file lawsuits to block state efforts to rein in social media companies.
Lowenthal said earlier this year that he was inspired to seek more safeguards for social media users, citing anxiety and depression among children who grew up with access to cell phones, tablets and computer screens.
The addictive nature of autoplay and other features is “harmful, period, and not suitable for the developing brain,” Lowenthal said.
Tech industry groups opposed Lowentha’s bill, arguing it would hinder users’ ability to connect with family and friends.
Meta and others last year pursued Senate Bill 976, a similar bill known as the “Protecting Our Children from Social Media Addiction Act” that bans addictive feeds and certain features to minors without parental consent. The 9th Circuit Court of Appeals will likely hear arguments in the case next spring, Courthouse News Services reported last month.
Senate Bill 976 and Assembly Bill 1709 will take effect on January 1.
TikTok, in its lawsuit filed Wednesday, argues that AB 1709 essentially supersedes SB 976, preventing a social media site from providing “addictive features” even if parents consent to a minor’s use of those features. The company also argued that it had restrictions in place to protect teenagers.
“The upshot is that a parent who reviewed the TikTok platform, linked her account to that of her fifteen-year-old child through Family Pairing, set a 30-minute daily screen limit, enabled Restricted Mode, and concluded that a personalized For You stream introducing her daughter to new musicians and science teachers was appropriate for her family, does not have the capacity under California law to make that choice,” Tik Tok’s lawyers wrote. “The fifteen-year-old also has no say in how she expresses herself online.”
California is home to some of the largest social media companies, which increasingly face lawsuits over their products. California was among dozens of states that sued Meta in 2023, alleging it designed harmful and addictive features to hook children while misleading the public about the dangers. Some of the harms included depression, anxiety, addiction and body image issues when young people compare themselves to others on social media.
Meta agreed to pay up to $17 billion and make changes to its Facebook and Instagram platforms, including hiding likes and reactions and blocking teens from using extreme makeup filters. The company also said it would impose a default two-hour daily limit that teens can turn off only with parental permission, turn off notifications during school hours, and implement a nighttime access mode that blocks its apps from midnight to 6 a.m.
In another landmark case, a Los Angeles jury found in March that Instagram and YouTube were responsible for the suffering of a Chico, Calif., woman who accused the platforms of being addictive by design. The 20-year-old, who was awarded $6 million in damages, said she became addicted to YouTube and Instagram in elementary school.
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