Washington – The Supreme Court refused Thursday to block a new Mississippi law that imposes age verification and parents’ consent restrictions on social media platforms.
In a brief order without dissidents, the Court rejected an emergency application filed by the Netchouize industrial group on behalf of nine of its members, including Facebook, X and YouTube.
In a separate concurrent opinion, Judge Brett Kavanaugh wrote that Netchice, in his opinion, “showed that it is likely to be successful in the merits” when the case reaches a final conclusion, but had not demonstrated the need to block the law at an early stage of the litigation.
The law, promulgated last year, requires that all users under 18 verify their age and that minors obtain the parents’ consent to access social media sites. Its objective is to address the growing concerns about the negative impact of social networks on young people.
Netchoice argued in judicial documents that restrictions violate the protections of freedom of expression under the first amendment of the Constitution. The group represented six additional platforms in the case: Dreamwidth, Instagram, Nextdoor, Pinterest, Reddit and Snapchat.
Other states, including California, Georgia and Florida, have approved similar laws in recent years and were also challenged, but the Supreme Court has not yet intervened. In a related issue, the Court in June confirmed a Texas Law that sought to restrict young access to online pornographic content.
Mississippi’s law also required that social media companies made “reasonable efforts” to ensure that minors are not exposed to harmful content.
Companies could be beaten with fines of $ 10,000 for violating the law.
Netchouize lawyers said in judicial documents that the provisions force companies to effectively censor the speech because some users, since they are not willing to verify their age or cannot obtain the approval of the parents, may not participate in a speech protected in another way.
Mississippi seeks to “alter fundamentally how their citizens can access the totally protected online discourse,” the lawyers wrote.
Defending the measure, the Mississippi attorney general, Lynn Fitch, wrote in his own report that “imposes modest duties on interactive online platforms that are especially attractive to predators.”
A federal judge had ruled twice that the law was probably unconstitutional, but the 5th Court of Appeals of the United States circuit based in New Orleans on July 17 said in a brief order that it could enter into force in its entirety.
