Stop California’s Social Media Ban (A.B. 1709)

We need your help to stop California’s AB 1709, California’s social media ban, as it moves through its final steps in the Senate. Recent amendments claim to improve the bill by prohibiting platforms from offering "addictive features" to users under 16, rather than enacting an outright ban. But make no mistake: this bill is still likely to result in banning young people from most social media services, and it still threatens the privacy and First Amendment rights of all Californians.

This over-reaching censorship scheme threatens your data privacy, ignores the First Amendment, and wastes taxpayer money during a massive budget deficit. And, by overriding the judgment of parents, the California Legislature is trying to take parenting away from families and replace it with an overbroad ban and a costly (and shady) new government commission.

Tell your representatives to vote NO on A.B. 1709.

A.B. 1709 would mandate social media companies with “Addictive feeds” be banned for those under 16, but the consequences will be felt by every Californian. Here’s why:

• Mandatory Digital Tracking: To enforce this ban, the state incentivizes platforms to implement age gates for all users by referencing the age-signaling framework in AB 1043, which makes platforms liable every time a person under 16 makes it through an age gate. This could mean handing over biometric data or government IDs just to create an account or log in, creating massive security risks for all users, destroying online anonymity, and building a permanent surveillance infrastructure. 

• Violating Free Speech: The First Amendment protects the right to speak and access information, regardless of age, and there is no “kid exception” to the First Amendment. Lawmakers in support of AB 1709 have already admitted that it is likely to follow the same path as other recent "child safety" laws that courts have struck down or blocked under the First Amendment. Forcing young people onto a stripped-down, dysfunctional version of social media burdens their constitutional right to access information and participate in public discourse.

• Overbroad and Inaccurate: The bill defines "addictive feeds" so broadly that it covers virtually every functional recommendation algorithm in existence or any presentation of user-generated content recommended "in whole or in part, on information provided by the user." That includes things like who a user follows or what posts they like. By calling these basic tools and features “addictive," the bill also makes broad conclusions about the unsettled science behind social media use, youth, and addiction.

• Government Overreach: Simply put, the state is not your parent. AB 1709 overrides the rights of parents to decide what is best for their own children and, instead, puts the state in charge of young people's digital lives. California already passed SB 976 two years ago attempting to regulate these addictive feeds. Instead of waiting for that bill to go into effect and assessing its implementation legally and practically, California is piling on with another problematic law.

• Fiscally Reckless During a Budget Crisis: With AB 1709, taxpayers are being asked to hand over a blank check to the state to defend a law that is unconstitutional on its face. California is wrestling with a massive $18 billion budget deficit, and instead of fixing it, the Legislature wants to fund a brand-new "e-Safety Advisory Commission" to enforce age verification and waste millions in taxpayer dollars defending a law that is unconstitutional on its face. 

We have been on the ground in the State Capitol fighting this bill in committees. Now, we need you to join the fight and remind them that Californians of all ages deserve better: The California Legislature is not my parent.