On Tuesday, Chief US District Judge Robert Shelby granted a preliminary injunction to block Utah from limiting the social media usage of minors, a law signed earlier in March by Republican Governor Spencer Cox called the Utah Minor Protection in Social Media Act. Set to take effect on October 1, the court’s decision is a victory for young social media users in the state. Governor Cox had previously signed two bills requiring parental permission for teens to use social media, which were later replaced in March after legal challenges. Under the blocked law, social media companies would have had to verify the age of all users, with minors facing limitations such as content visibility only to connected accounts, restrictions on searches and messages by non-followers or friends. The injunction came in response to claims by NetChoice, a trade association representing tech giants like X, Snap, Meta, and Google, that the law violated the First Amendment. Similar laws in states like Arkansas, California, and Texas have also been partially or fully blocked due to legal challenges by NetChoice.
