Key facts
- Google, Meta and TikTok filed separate lawsuits on November 4, 2026, seeking to block Assembly Bill 1709.
- The companies said the law violates the First Amendment and Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
- The law bars platforms from offering children under 16 features such as personal recommendations and autoplay.
- California attorney general Rob Bonta is the only defendant; his office said it is reviewing the lawsuits.
- Governor Gavin Newsom signed the law on September 10, 2026, and it takes effect on January 1, 2027.
Google, Meta and TikTok sued California on November 4, 2026, to block enforcement of Assembly Bill 1709, a state law meant to limit the risk of addicting children under 16 to social media. The law bars platforms from offering underage children "psychologically exploitative features" that could lead to compulsive use, such as personal recommendations and autoplay, and requires deletion of children's accounts with those features.
The companies filed separate lawsuits. Google sued in federal court in San Jose, Meta in San Francisco and TikTok in Los Angeles. They said the law compels them to follow California's preferred way of presenting content to children and substitutes the state's judgment for that of parents. They said it violates the First Amendment's free speech protections and Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act, which shields online platforms from liability over user content.
Rob Bonta, the California attorney general, is the only defendant. His office said on November 5 it is reviewing the lawsuits. "Our office is committed to defending California's commonsense laws to protect kids online," it said.
Governor Gavin Newsom signed the law on September 10, saying children's safety should be central to any discussion about technology and that California "will not stand by while unregulated technology puts our children at risk." The law takes effect on January 1, 2027, unless a judge voids it or puts it on hold.
Jose Castaneda, a Google spokesperson, said on November 5: "Parents are best positioned to make the right decisions for their families." He added: "Overly broad laws like this actually break the systems we've built to help kids find high-quality, age-appropriate videos." Google owns YouTube and is a unit of Alphabet; Meta owns Facebook and Instagram; TikTok is a unit of China's ByteDance.
Meta said in its lawsuit that California cannot override its editorial judgments about how to curate and display billions of posts while leaving children free to spend unlimited time on other platforms offering similar services. TikTok said protected speech "cannot be suppressed solely to protect the young from ideas or images that a legislative body thinks unsuitable."
The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights advocacy group, called the law "a massive privacy and free speech nightmare." Many US states regulate children's access to social media, and countries including Australia ban social media for children under 16.