RICHMOND, Va.—Today, an unconstitutional bill was proposed in the Virginia legislature that would ban the use of TikTok in the state for minors under the age of 18. To verify ages, this bill would require TikTok to collect massive amounts of data on Virginia residents—adults and children alike.
A similar approach failed in Montana last year on First Amendment grounds, and if Virginia lawmakers adopt this bill, it will ultimately fail there, too.
“This proposal is unconstitutional as we’ve already seen in other states that have tried this. A ‘ban’ is used by authoritarians—not the United States of America, where we thankfully have protections,” said Carl Szabo, NetChoice Vice President & General Counsel. “The government can’t tell us what websites we can visit or what apps we can download, but that is exactly what Virginia is trying to do.”
Szabo continued: “Virginia representatives must reject this approach that, if passed, would ban Virginians from getting access to news, harm Virginia businesses and creators, require more data collection, and disconnect Virginians from online speech.”
Virginia HB 1468 can be found here.
Read NetChoice’s amicus brief in the Montana case in support of TikTok and their content creators, Alario & TikTok v. Knudson, here.
Please contact press@netchoice.org with inquiries.