A federal judge has struck down an Arkansas law that required social media platforms to verify the ages of Arkansas residents using the platforms.
The state’s Social Media Safety Act unconstitutionally burdens both minors and their parents by requiring documentation of parental consent for minors to access the websites, U.S. District Judge Timothy Brooks said in the March 31 ruling.
“Arkansas’s imposition of an age-verification requirement for account creation is maximally burdensome,” Brooks wrote. “It erects barriers to accessing entire social media platforms rather than placing those barriers around the content or functions that raise concern. It not only hinders adults’ ability to speak and receive protected speech online, it excludes minors whose parents do not consent (or cannot prove their consent) from ‘the vast democratic forums of the Internet.’”…