EL DORADO, Ark. (Legal Newsline) - An Arkansas federal judge has stopped a new law that would require social media companies to inspect documents like the driver's licenses of would-be users to verify their ages.
In a 50-page decision issued Aug. 31, Judge Timothy Brooks granted the request for a preliminary injunction sought by NetChoice, an internet trade association representing members like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, TikTok and Snapchat.
Their lawsuit claimed the Social Media Safety Act is unconstitutional, even if its intentions are honorable. The law hopes to prevent exploitation of minors on social media.
However, it makes a "social media company" hire a third-party vendor that would verify users' ages through the uploading of a specified form of identification. Minors would be denied an account and prevented from using the platform without parental consent.
Brooks found NetChoice had standing to challenge the law and showed a success of likelihood. He said the law is unconstitutionally vague because it fails to adequately define what makes a company subject to its requirements.
The law defines a social media company as an online forum that allows an account holder to create a public profile and upload or create posts or content for "the primary purpose of interacting socially with other profiles and accounts."
"But the statute neither defines 'primary purpose' - a term critical to determining which entities fall within Act 689's scope - nor provides any guidelines about how to determine a forum's 'primary' purpose,' leaving companies to choose between risking unpredictable and arbitrary enforcement (backed by civil penalties, attorneys fees and potential criminal sanctions) and trying to implement the Act's costly age-verification requirements," Brooks wrote.
"Such ambiguity renders a law unconstitutional."
NetChoice succeeded in arguing adult users would be deterred from using social media platforms when they first have to upload their driver's license to the internet, Brooks wrote. That has the effect of chilling their speech, he wrote.