NetChoice Vice President Carl Szabo said the state should not have been caught off-guard by the lawsuit.
“The state knew time and time again they were going to be tested on this lawsuit,” Szabo said. “Everything they’re complaining about, they’ve known for months.”
He added the deal proposed by the state didn’t offer much, if any, protection to social media companies.
“The state may delay enforcement, that doesn’t mean they’ll delay accruing the penalties for future enforcement,” said Szabo.
The judge agreed with the tech companies and denied the state’s request.
Szabo said he’s confident the law will never see the light of day. “It doesn’t take a rock star to know that this law is unconstitutional and flies in the face of the First Amendment. The state just can’t come down on a private industry and tell them that they have to say something that the state wants you to say.”