California Battles Google, Meta Over Algorithmic Recommendations for Minors

California's Attorney General Rob Bonta is urging a federal appeals court to reject Google's and Meta's push to block enforcement of a law prohibiting social platforms from algorithmically recommending posts to minors under 18 without parental consent.

The law, which went into effect in 2024, prohibits web publishers from recommending content to teens based on their personal data. NetChoice, a tech industry group, initially challenged the law, arguing that it violates the First Amendment right to recommend content and teens' constitutional right to access content.

However, the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in favor of California last year, stating that individual social platforms must sue individually if they want to block the law. Google, Meta, and TikTok subsequently alleged in separate complaints that their recommendations were editorial speech, protected by the First Amendment.

But Bonta argues that algorithmic recommendations are not protected by the First Amendment because they are based solely on mathematical formulas and do not reflect human editorial judgment.