Sixth Circuit revives tech group’s challenge to Tennessee social media law

Filed 1h ago · Via Courthouse News · The Buffoon Desk

THIS STORY IS SCORED

Hamster March

Kevin MacLeod · incompetech.com · CC BY 4.0

Photo: Lucas van Leyden · Public domain · via Wikimedia Commons

A divided Sixth Circuit panel revived NetChoice's challenge to Tennessee's Protecting Children from Social Media Act, which requires age verification and parental consent for minors on platforms like Meta, X, Google and TikTok. The panel ruled 2-1 that a lower court improperly denied a preliminary injunction without weighing whether NetChoice was likely to win on the merits.

The law, in effect since January 2025, also mandates parental supervision tools like privacy controls and time limits. Tennessee's attorney general has argued NetChoice lacks standing to sue on behalf of minors, while the dissenting judge noted the state hasn't actually enforced the act against anyone yet.

The case now returns to the district court to sort out the injunction factors it skipped the first time. It's the second such minors' social media law to reach the Sixth Circuit this year, after a similar Ohio law survived an identical 2-1 vote in June.

The full dispatch is available from the source below.

✒ FROM THE EDITORIAL DESK

A trade group representing the largest platforms on earth insisting it's the guardian of free speech and parental rights is a genuinely funny sentence to type with a straight face. Courts keep sending these cases back for more homework, which is fitting, since nobody involved — legislators, litigants, or judges — seems eager to actually finish deciding the question.

Source: Read the original at Courthouse News → Scored: Hamster March · Kevin MacLeod · CC BY 4.0

Read it scored.

Every story, every clown, every kazoo — in your pocket. Music plays automatically. Regret is optional.

GET IT ON iOS GET IT ON ANDROID