DENVER–A social media trade association is suing the state of Colorado in federal court over a law requiring advisory labels for underage users warning of the brain development effects of social media use.
NetChoice represents numerous large social media companies including Meta (Facebooks parent company), Pinterest, Reddit, YouTube, and X, among others. According to their news release, NetChoice is suing on free speech grounds, claiming the law amount to Colorado “attempting an unconstitutional power grab by forcing websites and online publishers to become its unwilling mouthpieces.”
House Bill 1136 passed out of the Democrat-controlled legislature in 2024. The pop-up warnings mandated by the law are required after January 1, 2026 and specifically show up for users under age 18, consistently warning them of social media scrolling impacts on their brain development. The ads are triggered when a user is on the same platform for over an hour within a 24-hour period, or if they are on the platform between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
Paul Taske, co-director of the NetChoice Litigation Center, says the goal is not only to stop the law from going into effect, but to get the Colorado legislature to think about the constitutionality of their actions,
“What we would hope to get out of the case is to stop the law from taking effect before January 1,” Taske told Complete Colorado. “More broadly in Colorado, I think we would hope that this challenge signals to the Colorado legislature that if they want to enact legislation that is constitutional and would withstand challenges they should be chatting with folks like NetChoice and others to really get a sense of where the constitutional pitfalls are.”
The lawsuit reads, in part: “Colorado’s attempt to compel a content-based, speaker-based, and vague collection of ‘social media platforms’ to discourage minors from using their services is equally unlawful.”
Taske reiterates that the legislature is free to push their own agenda, but can’t force social media platforms to speak for them.
“The state is more than welcome to say what it thinks are the harms of social media,” he said, noting that “Section four forces private social media websites to convey the states preferred message.”
The lawsuit was filed August 14 and names Attorney General Phil Weiser as defendant.
