The recent decision of a federal appeals court in the United States has been hailed as a significant victory for freedom of speech and privacy. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals confirmed that certain aspects of the California Age Appropriate Design Act (AADC) likely violate the First Amendment of the Constitution. Additionally, the court determined that other points of the legislation would need further review by a lower court.
The judges of the Ninth Circuit Court opposed regulations that required online companies to assess whether the content they host is “harmful” to children and take steps to mitigate such harm. This position was supported by a filing from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) and the Center for Democracy & Technology (CDT), who argued that these provisions were unconstitutional and could not be separated from the rest of the law, potentially leading to its total annulment.
The AADC, enacted in 2022, imposes on online companies the obligation to draft a “Data Protection Impact Assessment” for each feature of their platform that could be used by children, assessing whether that feature could expose minors to harmful content. It also requires companies to follow specific data privacy rules aimed at children, including limitations on the use of geolocation data.
While the court confirmed the initial suspension of the Impact Assessment provisions, the others will be reanalyzed at a lower level to apply the correct legal tests. According to the court, the online content regulation imposed by the AADC could categorize companies as state censors and, given its vague scope, likely infringes on the right to freedom of speech.
The EFF praised the court’s interpretation that the censorship provisions of the AADC are restrictive, and that their annulment would allow users to continue accessing legal information online. The court also left open the question of whether the age verification requirement of the AADC is unconstitutional, a issue that will need to be reviewed in subsequent instances.
This ruling is considered crucial not only for user rights, but also because it provides a roadmap for lawmakers to draft data privacy laws that can withstand constitutional scrutiny. However, the court’s omission to address the issue of age verification shows that the fight for online freedom protection continues and legal battle is expected to continue in the coming months.
via: MiMub in Spanish
