Case: NetChoice v. Bonta, 5:22-cv-08861
Court: U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California
Filed: May 15, 2023
The Student Press Law Center teamed up with the New York Times to file an amicus brief in NetChoice v. Bonta, in which NetChoice challenges the constitutionality of the California Age Appropriate Design Code Act (A.B. 2273). The law aims to protect children’s privacy on social media platforms. The amicus brief, filed in support of NetChoice, argues that the law also applies to news publishers in ways that violate both the publishers’ and minor readers’ rights. In particular, the new law proscribes content online that would “expose children to harmful or potentially harmful content,” without defining “harmful.” Thus, the statute could easily implicate content that would be newsworthy to the communities that student journalists serve, as well as greatly restrict students’ abilities to research, factcheck and participate in public life.