US Supreme Court Rejects Efforts To Block Social Media Age Verification Law In Mississippi

Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavinaugh (photo: x @azredscorpion)

JAKARTA - The United States Supreme Court rejected the emergency petition filed by NetChoice to block the HB 1126 Act in the state of Mississippi. The regulation requires social media platforms to verify the user's age and limit account creation for those under 18 years of age, unless they get parental consent.

Although Supreme Court Justice Brett Kaveanaugh admits that this law is likely to conflict with the Constitution. However, he considered NetChoice to fail to point out a fairly urgent threat of danger.

HB 1126 not only requires age verification, but also demands the platform to protect minor users from harmful content, including sexual material and those related to self-injury behavior. In addition, this rule also limits the collection of data on minors.

NetChoice 'association supported by tech giants such as Meta, Google, Amazon, Reddit, and Discord' against these rules on the grounds of violating the First Amendment to the US Constitution on freedom of expression. According to them, the application of this law to general social media platforms is an unconstitutional form of restriction.

Interestingly, Kavinaugh agrees that the law is "possibly unconstitutional," but he insists NetChoice is not sufficient to prove the immediate loss of its application. For more details, in my opinion, NetChoice has shown that it is likely to win in the subject case, namely that Mississippi's law enforcement is likely to violate the rights of its members' First Amendments," Kawanaugh was quoted as saying by VOI from Android Headline.

District courts in several other states previously also blocked similar laws, so there was a precedent that supported NetChoice's position. However, in the case of Mississippi, the Supreme Court chose not to temporarily suspend its implementation.

Paul Taske, co-director of the NetChoice Litigation Center, expressed his disappointment with the decision. Even so, he stressed that Kavinaugh's statement became a positive signal that NetChoice would eventually win. This is just a unfortunate procedural delay," he said.