United States of America: United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia granted preliminary injunction against social media provisions of Protecting Georgia’s Children on Social Media Act (SB 351/Act 463)

On 26 June 2025, the United States District Court for the Northern District of Georgia granted a preliminary injunction in NetChoice v Carr, blocking enforcement of the social media platform provisions of Georgia’s Protecting Georgia’s Children on Social Media Act of 2024 (SB 351). NetChoice, a trade association representing online platforms, filed the lawsuit against Attorney General Chris Carr. The Act, scheduled to take effect on 1 July 2025, would have required platforms to verify users’ ages, obtain parental consent for minors under sixteen, restrict targeted advertising, and provide parental dashboards. The Court found that these obligations likely violate the First Amendment by restricting lawful speech and compelling platforms’ editorial decisions. The injunction does not extend to the Act’s school-related provisions on digital citizenship and cyberbullying, nor to the separate requirement that adult-content websites where more than one-third of content is harmful to minors implement strict age verification without retaining identification data. The case will continue to trial on the merits.