• by Wendy Davis  @wendyndavis, July 2, 2025

The tech industry group NetChoice is suing to block a Minnesota law that would require social platforms to publicly disclose how their recommendation algorithms evaluate content.

The Prohibiting Social Media Manipulation Act, passed last year and slated to take effect at the end of this month, would also require social platforms to disclose how they "impose limits on user engagement."

"These compelled disclosure requirements violate the First Amendment many times over," NetChoice says in its complaint, filed this week in U.S. District Court in Minnesota.

The organization argues that social platforms' algorithms, which guide determinations about how to present content, are comparable to editorial decisions made by traditional media -- and therefore protected by the First Amendment.

"Minnesota cannot compel disclosure of these protected editorial algorithms any more than it could compel a newspaper to reveal its editorial decision-making process," NetChoice argues. 

"Those First Amendment protections exist whether the algorithm is programmed to limit the reach of certain harmful speech or conduct, enforce the platform's content-moderation rules, create a pleasant experience for users, or -- as is the right of every legal commercial enterprise -- to urge people to stay on and engage with the product," NetChoice adds.

NetChoice, which counts Meta, Snap, Google and other large tech companies as members, also argues that the law's provisions are unconstitutionally vague.

For instance, the requirement to disclose algorithm specifically includes a mandate to explain how a platform assesses "the quality of content" -- a phrase that NetChoice says is so unclear that it encourages arbitrary enforcement of the law.

NetChoice additionally says its members' algorithms are trade secrets, adding that the law would force platforms "to divulge extremely valuable and confidential information."