Meta, Google and TikTok Sue to Block California Feed Law

Meta, Google and TikTok filed separate federal lawsuits on November 4 challenging California's ban on addictive social media features for users under 16. [Meta, Google and TikTok Sue to Block California Social Media Ban for Kids — Law Commentary] [Big Tech sues over California plan to limit kids' scrolling — Malwarebytes] [Meta, Google and TikTok sue California to block law shielding children from 'addictive' algorithms — New York Post]

Assembly Bill 1709, signed by Governor Gavin Newsom in September and effective January 1, 2027, bars platforms from giving under-16 users personalized feeds, autoplay and infinite scroll, and requires age verification before any of those features reach a teenager. [Meta, Google and TikTok Sue to Block California Social Media Ban for Kids — Law Commentary] [Big Tech sues over California plan to limit kids' scrolling — Malwarebytes]

The penalties frame the stakes: up to 50,000 dollars per affected child for knowing violations and 25,000 dollars for negligent ones, enforced by Attorney General Rob Bonta and local prosecutors. Meta argues that choosing and arranging posts is protected editorial judgment, and that the law makes the state 'the editor, curator, and controller of online speech.' TikTok makes the same claim for its For You feed and adds that California is displacing parents who already have screen-time controls; its teen accounts, it notes, carry more than 50 preset safety settings, and direct messaging has been off for under-16s since 2020. Google argues YouTube's recommendations are how children find age-appropriate material among some 20 million uploads a day, and that autoplay is already off by default for every user under 18. [Meta, Google and TikTok Sue to Block California Social Media Ban for Kids — Law Commentary] [Meta, Google and TikTok sue California to block law shielding children from 'addictive' algorithms — New York Post]

This is the second round, not the first. California's earlier law, Senate Bill 976, barred personalized feeds for under-18s without parental consent; AB 1709 removes that exception and lowers the age line to 16. In August, U.S. District Judge Edward Davila refused the companies' request to temporarily block SB 976's feed restrictions, finding they hadn't shown the provisions were likely to violate their First Amendment rights. The companies appealed on August 11, and the new suits, filed in federal courts in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Jose, ask judges to stop the broader law before its January 1 deadline. What the platforms are really litigating is whether a feed is speech. If ranking is editorial, the state can't redesign it; if ranking is a product feature, California can regulate it like one. [Meta, Google and TikTok Sue to Block California Social Media Ban for Kids — Law Commentary]