• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, April 23, 2025

Florida has sued Snap for allegedly violating a controversial new social media law that prohibits platforms with “addictive features” from allowing anyone under 14 to create or maintain accounts, and requires those platforms to obtain parental consent before allowing 14- or 15-year-olds to create or maintain accounts.

“Rather than obeying Florida law by removing 13-year-old users from the platform and seeking parental consent for 14- and 15-year-old users, Snap is actively deceiving Florida parents about the risks of allowing their teens to access this platform,” Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier alleges in a complaint filed this week in Santa Rosa County Circuit Court.

Snap “has acknowledged in other litigation that it is subject to H.B. 3, yet it is openly defying this important public health measure,” Uthmeier's office writes.

Florida's House Bill 3, which took effect last month, applies to a platform if at least 10% of users under 16 spend at least two hours per day on average at that platform. The law only covers platforms that employ an allegedly addictive quality -- such as displaying “like” counts, or automatically playing videos.

The allegations against Snap stem directly from a challenge to the law brought by the tech industry groups NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association, which argued in a complaint filed last year that the statute violates the First Amendment in several ways -- including by preventing minors from accessing lawful speech.

U.S. District Court Judge Mark Walker in Tallahassee dismissed the tech industry's complaint last month on the grounds that NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association lacked “standing” because they hadn't shown that any of their members would be affected by the law.

Walker said at the time that the organizations could beef up the complaint and bring it again.

They did so on March 28, alleging in an amended complaint that NetChoice member Snap is likely covered by the law. That same day, the industry groups again asked Walker to block enforcement of the law.

The amended complaint includes the allegations that Florida officials are now relying on -- including that Snapchat (operated by Snap) allows teens under 16 to create accounts without parental permission, deploys recommendation algorithms and allows push notifications.

The tech groups noted in their original and amended complaints that the Supreme Court previously struck down a California law that would have banned the sale of violent video games to minors, without parental consent. Justice Antonin Scalia, who authored the opinion in that matter, wrote that even though the government has the power to protect children, states don't have a “free-floating power to restrict the ideas to which children may be exposed."

On Monday, the same day that Florida sued Snap, state officials opposed the tech industry's request for an injunction.

Walker hasn't yet indicated when he will rule on the groups' request.

A Snap spokesperson says the Florida social media law “does not adequately address age verification and infringes on the First Amendment rights of adults and young people while also opening Floridians up to data protection and privacy issues.”

The spokesperson added that the company hoped Florida officials would allow the tech industry's lawsuit challenging the statute “to proceed through the proper legal process.”

“Unfortunately, they’ve decided to file a complaint in state court in an attempt to bypass the issues that are already being heard in federal court,” the spokesperson added.