Federal judge skeptical of Florida's attempt to ban social media for young teenagers

TALLAHASSEE —  A federal judge on Friday told lawyers in a landmark social media case it would be a “hard row to hoe” for state officials to justify a complete ban on social media for young teenagers, signaling his skepticism toward the new Florida law championed by Gov. Ron DeSantis.

U.S. District Judge Mark Walker did not immediately rule on a request for a preliminary injunction that would further block the new law from taking effect. Walker said a decision may come within three weeks.

Walker’s questions during oral arguments in his courtroom in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Florida also included a pointed jab at Republican themes — on public policy issues like school vouchers and what can be taught in classrooms — that the GOP wants to empower parents to make choices on behalf of their children. 

The law would include an outright ban for social media accounts for teens younger than 14, no matter how parents feel.

Florida “picks and chooses when parents make a decision” for their children, the judge said.

The social media law, which was supposed to take effect Jan. 1, would block anyone under 16 from using some social media but would allow 14- and 15-year-olds to use the online services with a parent’s permission. Companies that violate the law could be fined up to $50,000 per violation.

The hearing Friday was supposed to last fewer than 90 minutes — but stretched more than three hours. It was supposed to focus narrowly on the request by tech companies to temporarily block the law, at least until a broader decision is resolved on whether the law is constitutional.

The judge’s questions to lawyers for the technology companies and the attorney general seemed aimed at the heart of the case.

Walker said it would be a challenge to justify how a complete ban for minors under 14 doesn’t infringe on their First Amendment rights to free speech. He said he has trouble finding differences with a social media ban that lawmakers in Utah tried to implement in 2024, which was blocked by a judge.

Walker was appointed by then-President Barack Obama in 2012 and has often ruled against the DeSantis administration, although at times those decisions have been overturned by higher courts. 

The lawyer for Florida’s attorney general, Kevin Golembiewski, said the ban doesn’t intend to restrict the speech of minors. He said it was meant to reduce their exposure to harmful content online and addictive practices that companies use to keep users on the app. The state has described those practices as scrolling videos or other content infinitely, or algorithms that serve videos based on users' perceived interests.

The lawyer for the tech companies, Erin Murphy, said social media features like push notifications help users know when their friends are interacting with them on the platform, which if removed from the app would cease to do what it was designed to do. It would be impossible for these platforms to shut down features that make users engage with the app, Murphy said.

Although the law is intended to keep young teens off social media, it also necessarily could require that adult users of some of the most popular platforms prove their age. There are few generally agreed-upon, full-proof methods for age verification on the internet.

One wrinkle that hasn't been ironed out: Exactly which social media apps are covered under the ban? The law doesn't name any particular company's products but says it applies only to social media platforms with addictive features and with 10% or more of daily active users who are younger than 16 and who spend an average of two hours or more on the service. All conditions must be met, or the law doesn't apply to that social media provider.

Walker said it would be the tech companies’ responsibility to compile the data on their users to determine whether the law applied to them. 

The law was a priority last year for DeSantis and the GOP-led House and Senate. DeSantis vetoed an early version of the proposal after a dispute with lawmakers about whether to give parents the choice for 14- and 15-year-olds.

In the face of legal questions after DeSantis signed the law, then-Attorney General Ashley Moody paused enforcing the ban until the outcome of the federal case in Tallahassee. 

This story was produced by Fresh Take Florida, a news service of the University of Florida College of Journalism and Communications. The reporter can be reached at landerson2l@freshtakeflorida.com.