Ben Sperry on the States’ Case Against Meta

Sacramento Bee – ICLE Senior Scholar Ben Sperry was quoted by The Sacramento Bee in a story about litigation filed by California Attorney General Rob Bonta and other state attorneys general against Meta. You can read full piece here.

Meanwhile, Ben Sperry of the International Center for Law and Economics, a nonpartisan research center, in a statement said that this lawsuit is “another effort by enterprising state AGs to make a name for themselves while states and the federal government grapple with how to properly regulate social media in order to deter harms to children.”

Sperry notes that there are several pending lawsuits already challenging Meta’s business practices, “and this suit is in some ways duplicative of those efforts.”

Sperry also notes that federal law granting social media companies a measure of immunity from state consumer protection laws has not been tested by the courts, and that some laws, including the California Age Appropriate Design Code Act — which aims to protect children’s privacy online — have already been enjoined by federal courts for likely violating the First Amendment.