A Georgia law that requires social media networks to verify the ages of users violates the U.S. Constitution, a federal judge said on June 26.
“The State seeks to erect barriers to speech that cannot withstand the rigorous scrutiny that the Constitution requires, and the inapt tailoring of the law—which is rife with exemptions that undermine its purpose—dooms its constitutionality and calls into question its efficacy,” U.S. District Judge Amy Totenberg wrote in a 50-page decision.
Known as the Protecting Georgia’s Children on Social Media Act, the 2024 law says social media platforms “shall make commercially reasonable efforts to verify the age of account holders with a level of certainty appropriate to the risks that arise from the social media platform’s information management practices.”…