Washington – The Computer & Communications Industry Association joined an amicus brief to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit, along with TechNet and several trade associations, in support of restoring the preliminary injunction of Mississippi HB1126, which imposes broad, content-based restrictions on social media websites, including invasive age-verification, parental-consent, and content-monitoring requirements. The brief explains how these mandates violate the First Amendment and risk causing irreparable harm to both digital service providers and their users.
The following can be attributed to Stephanie Joyce, CCIA Senior Vice President, Chief of Staff, and Director of CCIA Litigation Center:
“This Mississippi law places tremendous burdens on lawful speech that cannot be squared with the First Amendment. Protecting children online is an urgent and necessary goal, but this law’s broad, heavy-handed approach unlawfully restricts dissemination of speech to the detriment of both service providers and users. It should be blocked from enforcement and struck down.”