• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, Yesterday

Arkansas officials will ask a federal appellate court to reinstate a law that would require social platforms to verify users' ages, and prohibit teens under 18 from having social media accounts without parental permission.

The law was permanently blocked last month by U.S. District Court Judge Timothy Brooks in Fayetteville, who ruled that the statute unconstitutionally restricts lawful speech.

“The court does not doubt the reality, well supported by the record, that unfettered social media access can and does harm minors,” Brooks wrote. “The state does not, however, have 'a free-floating power to restrict the ideas to which children may be exposed,'” he added, quoting from a 2011 Supreme Court ruling that struck down a California law restricting the sale of violent video games to minors.

Late last week, Arkansas officials initiated an appeal to the 8th Circuit Court of Appeals. State officials have not yet made substantive arguments to that court.

The Arkansas social media law, passed in 2023, would have applied to most social media platforms that are controlled by companies with more than $100 million in annual revenue. A last-minute amendment apparently exempted Google. That amendment exempted companies that offer educational “enterprise collaboration tools” for kindergarten through grade 12, and derive less than 25% of total company revenue from operating a social platform.

The restrictions would not have applied to platforms with less than $100 million in revenue -- including Discord, Gab and Truth Social.

The tech industry group NetChoice sued to block the law, arguing it was unconstitutional.

“Books, movies, television, rock music, video games, and the Internet have all been accused in the past of exposing youth to content that has deleterious effects,” NetChoice argued, adding that laws attempting to prevent minors from accessing such material “have reliably and repeatedly been struck down.”

Other states -- including Ohio, New York, Maryland, Mississippi, Utah, Tennessee, Texas, Louisiana, Georgia and California -- have passed statutes that either restrict teens' use of social media, or regulate companies' ability to serve content to teens.

Many of those laws are currently facing court challenges, and so far judges have temporarily blocked all or parts of those laws in Ohio, Mississippi, Utah, Texas and California.