ALEXANDRIA, Va.—Today, NetChoice sued Virginia to stop a new law that, if implemented, would place unlawful barriers on how and when all Virginians can access free speech online, increase cybersecurity threats to families and usurp parents.
The law, SB 854, bars access to valuable, lawful speech simply because it happens online. Citizens will have to hand over their sensitive documentation to access digital services. It also imposes a one-hour, government-mandated time limit on “social media” use. Specifically targeting “social media” means that if you wanted to watch a documentary or discuss current political issues on those services for more than an hour, you would be forced to stop watching or discussing and pick it up tomorrow just because the government says so. Such a restriction is no different than a law that curbs the time spent reading books, watching documentaries on TV or even having in-person conversations.
The First Amendment prohibits such a heavy-handed approach, and the legal issues are not solved by inserting an exception for those able to satisfactorily provide parental consent. In fact, that requirement actually increases the problems with the law by creating additional privacy and security concerns for families, on top of such restrictions being blatantly unlawful.
“The First Amendment forbids government from imposing time-limits on access to lawful speech. Virginia’s government cannot force you to read a book in one-hour chunks, and it cannot force you to watch a movie or documentary in state-preferred increments. That does not change when the speech in question happens online,” said Paul Taske, Co-Director of the NetChoice Litigation Center.
“Virginia must leave the parenting decisions where they belong: with parents. By asserting that authority for itself, Virginia not only violates its citizens’ rights to free speech but also exposes them to increased risk of privacy and security breaches. We look forward to defending Virginians’ First Amendment rights in court.”
SB 854 is scheduled to go into effect on January 1, 2026.
NetChoice is confident the law will be struck down and stopped from taking effect while our case moves through the legal system.
Read NetChoice’s initial complaint, filed today in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, here. Find full case resources for NetChoice v. Miyares here.
Key Takeaways of NetChoice v. Miyares (Virginia):
- Imposing government-mandated time limits on social media use is no different than restricting reading books or watching documentaries: Virginia’s SB 854 restricts access to speech simply because it happens online. This violates First Amendment rights and will result in Virginians losing access to digital information.
- Virginia’s law poses a serious threat to cybersecurity and online safety: By mandating that users go through an identity verification process to determine a user’s age and their guardianship status, Virginia’s government risks the security of all their citizens—especially minors—by putting their most sensitive documents and information into a honeypot for online predators and cybercriminals to exploit.
- SB 854 usurps parents and seizes their role for the State: Parents and guardians are the best situated to determine their family’s online presence—not big government red tape that puts safety, security and free speech in jeopardy.
NetChoice is a trade association dedicated to vigorously protecting free enterprise and free expression online.
Please contact press@netchoice.org with inquiries.