Utah Residents Sue the State Over Soon-to-Be Enacted Social Media Restrictions

A civil liberties group has filed a lawsuit against Utah’s social media regulations on behalf of several residents, including a teenage Utahn, who allege the regulations violate protections for freedom of speech.

Attorneys with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression filed the complaint in federal court on Friday, comparing concerns of social media’s alleged harm to teen users to moral panics over “penny dreadfuls,” early movies, comic books or video games.

The Social Media Regulation Act, passed through a pair of Utah bills in 2023, requires that minors get consent from a parent or guardian in order to sign up for a social media account — in effect requiring all users in the state to verify their age. It also requires social media companies to treat minor accounts differently than adult accounts by limiting who can see them in search results, disabling direct messaging with certain accounts and creating an overnight “curfew” when minors cannot access their accounts.

Read the source article at KSL.com