NetChoice keeps fighting Arkansas’ efforts to regulate youth access to social media

The legal lobby for Silicon Valley’s biggest companies has filed a request for a preliminary injunction to stop Arkansas’ Act 900 from taking effect. The Act, which would put age assurance requirements on large social media platforms, proposes to amend a 2023 law, the Social Media Safety Act, which was blocked with a permanent injunction by a U.S. District Court judge in April 2025.

Act 900, NetChoice says, “still imposes the same unconstitutional identity verification requirements struck down by the court.”

The trade group simultaneously claims that changes to the previous law are merely “cosmetic,” and that it “attempts to impose new, sweeping restrictions on speech by, for example, blocking all notifications within state-specified windows.” A release quotes Paul Taske, co-director of the NetChoice Litigation Center, who is happy to unsheath his favorite weapon for carving the constitution into Big Tech’s preferred shape.

“Our message has been clear: the First Amendment prohibits the government from restricting access to lawful speech,” Taske says. “Arkansas’ ‘cosmetic’ update does not remedy the law’s continued constitutional defects. The new law, like its predecessor, ignores the First Amendment and will meet the same fate.”

Regardless of the amendment, says Taske, “the age verification scheme is unconstitutional because it would force Arkansans to surrender their most sensitive personal information just to access protected information and engage with their communities.”

“Rather than protecting citizens, these requirements create a chilling effect that restricts the rights of adults and minors alike. Arkansas must stop wasting taxpayer dollars on these misguided efforts and instead focus on real solutions that respect both family autonomy and free expression.”

Perhaps NetChoice’s most ironic assertion is that Act 900’s “vague rules encourage frivolous lawsuits.”

NetChoice suits unlikely to stop, despite opposition

In December 2025, a coalition of 33 states and the District of Columbia filed an amicus brief with the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit, throwing their support behind Arkansas’ social media legislation and accusing major social platforms of predatory business practices.

“Platforms have enlisted their trade association, NetChoice, to fight all efforts to regulate their business practices and protect kids online,” says the brief. “According to NetChoice, the Constitution gives tech giants like Google and Meta a veto for any law that regulates their practices simply because their platforms host speech. The First Amendment, they say, grants platforms not just a right to speak but also a right to contract with children, exploit their developing brains with addictive design features, expose them to sexual predators, and drive them to self-harm and suicide – all while misleading the public about their products.”

So the cycle continues: legislation aiming to protect kids from social media harms arises. Social media’s lawyers sue to stop the laws on First Amendment grounds. Lawmakers try again, targeting different features. That effort is likewise met with litigation from NetChoice’s Litigation Center.

According to the Arkansas Advocate, state Attorney General Tim Griffin intends to “vigorously defend Act 900.” NetChoice exists largely to counter vigorous laws with endless lawsuits; it will not cease its opposition, as long as its baron overlords can fund it. Free speech has been a convenient broadsword for the organization, and an effective tool in U.S. courts that have been trained to treat it as divine right. But it doesn’t take much to see it from a different angle: Silicon Valley is suing to keep damaging kids.

For NetChoice, any limit on social media will always be unconstitutional

Consider the case of Virginia. According to MediaPost, NetChoice is attempting to block SB 854, the law that does not ban kids from social media, but puts a one hour time limit on major platforms for kids under 16, unless parents consent otherwise. NetChoice says Virginia’s law “restricts wide swaths of First Amendment activity.”

“Minors must obtain parental consent before spending more than an hour a day watching Fourth Circuit arguments on YouTube, debating politics on Dreamwidth, or discussing college applications on College Confidential,” it says – as though that’s what minors are doing on social media, rather than trying to outdo each other with stupid challenges, scrolling endless feeds filled with influencer content, and watching MrBeast turn Squid Game into a reality show.

Regardless, by NetChoice’s logic, putting any time restriction on youth’s ability to access information is unacceptable – presumably meaning it also believes Virginia’s public libraries should be legally obligated to stay open 24 hours to avoid violating the constitution, and would be willing to argue as much in court.

Article Topics

age verification  |  Arkansas  |  Arkansas’ Social Media Safety Act  |  legislation  |  Netchoice  |  social media  |  United States