Google, Meta, and TikTok have filed separate lawsuits against California over Assembly Bill 1709, a state law that restricts addictive social media features for children under 16. The complaints, filed Wednesday, argue that the law violates the First Amendment and conflicts with Section 230. The law is scheduled to take effect on January 1, 2027.
Governor Gavin Newsom signed AB 1709 on September 10 as part of a broader package covering social media and AI chatbot safety.
What California's AB 1709 Restricts
AB 1709 targets three features that the law defines as "psychologically exploitative features":
- personalized feeds
- endless scrolling
- autoplay videos
Platforms covered by the law must also take reasonable steps to verify the ages of their users. California's goal is to stop companies from using features designed to keep children scrolling after they meant to put the phone down.
How Google, Meta, and TikTok Are Challenging the Law
The three companies argue in their filings that California is dictating how they present content and replacing parents' judgment with the state's own. Each company frames the challenge slightly differently.
Meta says the state cannot override its editorial decisions about how posts are organized and displayed. TikTok says the restrictions interfere with free expression and parental choice. Google argues that the rules could undermine systems that help children find appropriate videos, and says parents should decide what is appropriate for their families, pointing to its existing parental controls.
"Overly broad laws like this actually break the systems we've built to help kids find high-quality, age-appropriate videos," Google spokesman José Castañeda said.
The office of California Attorney General Rob Bonta said it is reviewing the lawsuits and will defend the state's child-protection laws.
Opposition is not limited to the platforms. The Electronic Frontier Foundation warns that age checks could push all users to hand over more personal information, and argues that removing recommendation tools could effectively shut young people out of online communities.
The lawsuits follow Meta's August agreement to pay up to $18 billion and change how teenagers use Facebook and Instagram to settle child-safety claims brought by states. Those changes include default time limits and mandatory scrolling breaks. Australia was the first country to pass an under-16 social media law, and Reddit has challenged that ban in Australia's High Court.
Nothing changes for California users yet. Parents who want limits before the law takes effect still have to rely on the parental controls each platform already offers, such as the ones Google points to in its argument. Age verification under AB 1709 would add a new data collection step for all users if the law survives, which is the trade-off the Electronic Frontier Foundation highlights.
No ruling has been issued, and the companies have not said whether they will ask the court to block AB 1709 before its January 1, 2027 start date.
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