NetChoice Lacks Standing to Challenge Ark. Social Media Law on 3rd Parties' Behalf, Says AG

Governments throughout the U.S. have designated certain areas that aren’t “appropriate for minors to occupy,” said Arkansas Attorney General Tim Griffin (R) in his opposition Thursday in U.S. District Court for Western Arkansas in Fayetteville to NetChoice’s July 7 motion for a preliminary injunction to enjoin him from enforcing the state’s social media age verification law when it takes effect Sept. 1 (see 2307100005).

From bars to casinos, state and local governments “have regulated minors’ access to such establishments, due to the potentially harmful nature of what lies inside,” said Griffin’s opposition. The Constitution “has always allowed such regulations,” it said.

The Social Media Safety Act, which Arkansas Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R) signed April 11, “follows in those footsteps to address a new frontier, protecting minors from the harmful and predatory environments of social media,” said the opposition. It does so by requiring all potential users “to verify their age and by requiring minors to have parental permission to create an online profile,” it said.

NetChoice wrongly claims the new law violates the free-speech rights of adults and minors in Arkansas, though NetChoice never asserts “its members’ own rights,” said the opposition. The law doesn’t infringe on free speech “because it regulates nonexpressive conduct by treating social media as places,” like bars or casinos, and sets parameters for when minors “can be present in those places,” it said.

NetChoice lacks standing to bring First Amendment claims “on behalf of third parties without first making any claims on behalf of itself,” said the opposition. Even if NetChoice “chins those bars,” the law “is narrowly tailored to serve the compelling governmental interest of protecting minors,” it said. The court should deny NetChoice’s motion for a preliminary injunction, it said.

An entire generation of minors has known nothing “other than a world with social media,” said the opposition. From birth, “they have been constantly bombarded by a deluge of images, videos, and advertisements,” it said. Despite the “great power” that social-media companies wield in our daily lives and the lives of our children, “they have neglected their great responsibility,” it said. “They have instead created platforms that are particularly addictive to minors to farm revenue,” it said.

The mix of minors and social media “is decidedly bad,” and “there's no two ways around it,” said the opposition. The costs to the children of Arkansas and the U.S. are “at a breaking point,” it said. That’s why Arkansas “decided to put a stop to these companies unilaterally profiting from the harm they are causing minors” when it passed the social media age verification law, it said.

The law allows individuals younger than 18 to create social-media profiles, but only with “parental authorization,” said the opposition. NetChoice and its member social-media companies “decided that they didn’t want to pay the minimal costs of age-verification to keep minors safe, so NetChoice filed this lawsuit,” it said. Now NetChoice asks the court for a preliminary injunction before the law takes effect Sept. 1, and its motion should be denied, it said.