One of the many Internet/social media-related laws passed in the last legislative session(s) has been partially put on hold by a federal judge.
A handful of new laws went into effect Sunday, including the Securing Children Online Through Parental Empowerment Act, despite multiple lawsuits to block the law’s enforcement. However, on Friday a Texas judge granted a preliminary injunction on certain requirements of the new law that aims to protect minors from “harmful content and data collection practices.”
Rep. Shelby Slawson (R-Texas) said the bill, passed during the 88th Texas Legislative Session, aimed to keep kids younger than 18 safe online while empowering parental involvement, the Chronicle previous reported.
On Friday, United States District Court Judge Robert Pitman issued an order stating the “preliminary injunction is limited only to HB 18’s monitoring-and-filtering requirements.”
“Plaintiffs have shown that HB 18 is a content-based statute and is therefore subject to strict scrutiny,” Pitman said. “As to the monitoring-and-filtering requirements, HB 18, plaintiffs have carried their burden in showing that the law’s restrictions on speech fail strict scrutiny, are unconstitutionally vague and are preempted by Section 230. Because Plaintiffs also show that the remaining equitable factors weigh in their favor, the court preliminarily enjoins Paxton from enforcing the monitoring-and-filtering provisions.”
In July, tech company NetChoice and the Computer and Communication Industry Association filed a lawsuit against Attorney General Ken Paxton to prevent the law from going into effect. Last month, the nonprofit Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression filed a separate lawsuit alleging the SCOPE Act infringed on more than just children’s rights. Introduced by Slawson as House Bill 18, the act requires digital service providers to follow these guidelines:
• Digital service providers must register the age of the person creating an account for the platform and prevent the person from altering his/her age at a later date
• A minor’s parent and/or guardian must notify the digital service provider of the minor’s age or successfully dispute the registered user’s ageThe SCOPE Act says digital service providers must implement a plan to “prevent the known minor’s exposure to harmful material” such as:
- self-harm, suicide, eating disorders, and other similar behaviors
- substance abuse and patterns of use that indicate addiction
- bullying and harassment
- sexual exploitation, including enticement, grooming, trafficking, abuse, and child pornography
- advertisements for products or services that are unlawful for a minor, including illegal drugs, tobacco, gambling, pornography, and alcohol; and
- predatory, unfair, or deceptive marketing practices
In Pitman’s 38-page order, he said plaintiffs did “not show that the remaining provisions of HB 18 unconstitutionally regulate a meaningful amount of constitutionally protected speech or otherwise fail strict scrutiny.”
See here for some background on this lawsuit, and here as well as the link in the Chron story for more on the other lawsuit, which was filed in late August and escaped my notice. The data collection rules and age verification requirements for digital service providers will remain in place while this case is being litigated, though the outcome of the other case might affect that. I assume the state will appeal – it’s what they usually do – so we’ll see what kind of malice the Fifth Circuit can get up to this time. KXAN has more.