Google, Meta and TikTok have filed separate lawsuits to block California's Assembly Bill 1709, which restricts social media features for users under 16 and takes effect January 1, 2027.
Google, Meta and TikTok have sued California to block a new state law intended to limit the risk of addicting children under 16 to social media platforms. The law, Assembly Bill 1709, was signed by Governor Gavin Newsom on September 10 and takes effect on January 1, 2027, unless a judge voids it or puts it on hold.
Assembly Bill 1709 prohibits social media platforms from offering underage children "psychologically exploitative features" that could lead to compulsive use, such as providing personal recommendations and sending videos through autoplay features. It also requires the deletion of children's accounts with those features. The law asks companies to take "reasonable measures" to verify ages so minors cannot slip past the restrictions.
In separate lawsuits filed on Wednesday, Google, Meta and TikTok said the law wrongly compels them to honor California's preferred means of presenting content to children and substitutes the state's judgment for that of parents. They said the law violates the US constitution's first amendment free speech protections, as well as Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act, which broadly shields online platforms from liability over user content.
Google filed its lawsuit in federal court in San Jose, California. Meta sued in San Francisco, and TikTok sued in Los Angeles. The office of Rob Bonta, the California attorney general, who enforces the state's laws and is the only defendant, said on Thursday it was reviewing the lawsuits. "Our office is committed to defending California's commonsense laws to protect kids online," it added.
"Parents are best positioned to make the right decisions for their families," Jose Castaneda, a Google spokesperson, said on Thursday. "Overly broad laws like this actually break the systems we've built to help kids find high-quality, age-appropriate videos."
In its lawsuit, Meta said California cannot override its editorial judgments about how to curate and display billions of posts, while leaving children free to spend unlimited time on other online platforms that offer similar services.
TikTok, meanwhile, said protected speech "cannot be suppressed solely to protect the young from ideas or images that a legislative body thinks unsuitable."
Governor Gavin Newsom signed the law on September 10, saying children's safety should be central to any discussion about technology, and California "will not stand by while unregulated technology puts our children at risk."
Google owns YouTube and is a unit of Alphabet, while Meta owns Facebook and Instagram. TikTok is a unit of China's ByteDance.
The companies and Snapchat parent Snap still face thousands of lawsuits by individuals, school districts, municipalities and other government entities claiming they sought to addict children and caused a mental health crisis that resulted in such harms as anxiety, depression and suicide.
The lawsuits test whether a social media feed counts as protected speech or as a product feature. The industry wants judges to treat ranking and autoplay as editorial choices, while states frame them as design features that can be switched off for younger users. The outcome will guide lawmakers far beyond Sacramento.
Sources
This article was drafted with AI assistance and checked against the sources above. Company claims are reported as claims. Cover image is AI-generated.
The day's checked news, by email
One short email a day with the top stories. Free, and you can unsubscribe in one click.
Or follow for the latest news:
No comments yet. Start the discussion.
TechTrending
An F-35B released an inert Meteor missile from its internal weapons bay on October 7, 2026, at Naval Air Station Patuxent River, Maryland, the first such release from the bay.
Security researchers found more than 800 Artex deployments accessible from the web without a password. The open-source tool has been linked to attacks on South Korean finance and ConnectWise customers.
