TALLAHASSEE, Fla. \u2013 After a ruling last week allowed Florida to begin enforcing a 2024 law designed to prevent children from having access to certain social-media sites, tech industry groups Wednesday asked a federal appeals court to quickly hear arguments about whether the law violates First Amendment rights.<\/p>\n
The groups NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association filed a motion requesting that the 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals \u201cexpedite\u201d oral arguments and a decision on the constitutional issue.<\/p>\n
U.S. District Judge Mark Walker in June issued a preliminary injunction to block the law (HB 3), agreeing with the industry groups that it likely violated the First Amendment. The state appealed Walker\u2019s decision, and a panel of the Atlanta-based appeals court last week approved a stay of the preliminary injunction.<\/p>\n
The stay effectively allowed the state to begin enforcing the law while the underlying appeal of Walker\u2019s decision continues to play out. Wednesday\u2019s motion seeks to speed up consideration of that underlying appeal.<\/p>\n
\u201cFlorida House Bill 3 is the latest attempt in a long line of government efforts to restrict new forms of constitutionally protected expression based on concerns about their potential effects on minors,\u201d the motion said. \u201cThis constitutional challenge to its restrictions accordingly raises exceptionally important issues about the First Amendment rights of \u2026 Computer & Communications Industry Association and NetChoice members to communicate with their users and the First Amendment rights of those users to access some of the most popular online services operated. Those rights are under threat of immediate harm because the injunction (the industry groups) had obtained to prevent HB 3\u2019s enforcement and to safeguard members\u2019 and their users\u2019 constitutional rights is now stayed.\u201d<\/p>\n
After last week\u2019s ruling, Attorney General James Uthmeier quickly posted on X that \u201cHB 3 is now the law of the state and will be enforced.\u201d A separate legal battle had already been pending about an attempt by Uthmeier to enforce the law against the operator of Snapchat.<\/p>\n
The law prevents children under age 14 from opening accounts on certain platforms \u2014 which court documents indicate could include platforms such as Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook and YouTube. Parents would have to give consent for 14- and 15-year-olds to have accounts on the platforms.<\/p>\n
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