Federal Judge Dismisses Lawsuit Against Florida Law Restricting Minors on Social Media

The Florida law barring social media companies for using addictive features toward minors has survived a court challenge from some of the largest tech companies.

Senior U.S. District Judge Mark Walker in Tallahassee dismissed a challenge against the state’s law barring Floridians younger than 14 from using social media apps with addictive features filed by industry organizations NetChoice and Computer & Communications Industry Association representing companies including Google, Facebook, Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube.




The dismissal reiterated Walker’s preliminary injunction denial earlier this month. Walker concluded that the social media companies have not proven they would be affected under the law, which requires parental consent for 14- and 15-year olds to use apps with addictive features.

The state argued Florida’s law is “materially different” from other states’ social media bans, given that it does not outlaw these services but rather features such as infinite scrolling and push notifications for minors.

“Because this law does not regulate ‘social media’ platforms generally, but instead limits its coverage to those platforms that meet each of four specific criteria, this court cannot reasonably infer that a particular platform is likely covered by the law without some factual allegations regarding each of those criteria,” Walker wrote, dismissing the case without prejudice.

NetChoice and CCIA have until Monday, March 31, to amend their complaint.

“Because this court finds that plaintiffs have not plausibly alleged standing, it need not consider defendant’s other arguments for dismissing the complaint,” Walker wrote.

In his March 13 denial of the preliminary injunction, Walker said the only evidence the tech associations brought was “conclusory assertions in each of the four declarations attached to their motion for a preliminary injunction that the declarant ‘understand[s]’ or ‘believes’ that one of their members ‘may be’ or ‘appears to be’ covered by the law.”

Earlier this month, NetChoice said it would continue to fight despite not receiving the preliminary injunction. Monday, a NetChoice spokesperson told the Phoenix it does not have “an update on next steps at this time.”

The attorney general’s office did not respond to a request for comment.

–Jay Waagmeester, Florida Phoenix