Social Media

Meta's "pay or consent" advertising model violates the Digital Markets Act (DMA), the European Commission said Monday in preliminary findings. The commission found that the binary choice forces Facebook and Instagram users to consent to having their personal data combined across Meta's social media and advertising services without giving them a less personalized but equivalent version of its social network. Meta introduced its pay or consent approach in November to comply with the DMA but the EC found that the model breaches the law's Article 5 (2). The DMA doesn't say that personal data accumulation is illegal but that consumers should have a real choice about what data is accumulated across gatekeepers' services, EC officials said. The law doesn't require that Meta offer an ad-free service, but there must be a middle ground between consenting to the combination of personal data accumulation and combination across services or paying a subscription for ad-free services, it said. Meta was designated as a gatekeeper in September. A company is a gatekeeper when it derives a specified annual revenue in the European Economic Area and offers a platform in at least three EU countries; offers a core platform for more than 45 million monthly active end users located in the EU, and more than 10,000 yearly active business users established in the EU; and if it met the second criterion for the past three years (see 2309060002). Asked whether other companies that use the pay or consent model should consider the preliminary findings a warning, officials stressed the DMA covers gatekeepers only and the commission's findings don't set out a general principle on pay or consent for those enterprises that aren't gatekeepers. "Subscription for no ads follows the direction of the highest court in Europe and complies with the DMA," a Meta spokesperson emailed, adding the company will continue working with the EC to resolve the investigation. The enforcement action "comes on top of the complaints against Meta's model for breaches of consumer law and data protection law which consumer organizations have raised" recently, the European Consumer Organisation said: "We now urge Meta to comply with laws meant to protect consumers."

A Mississippi social media law requiring age verification may not be enforced while litigation continues, the U.S. District Court for Southern Mississippi decided Monday. The state law requiring parental consent for minors younger than 18 (HB-1126) was to take effect that day. But the court said NetChoice showed a high likelihood of success in its complaint (see 2406070059) against Mississippi Attorney General Lynn Fitch (R).

The First Amendment protects social media platforms’ ability to moderate content, the U.S. Supreme Court said Monday, sending the tech industry’s lawsuits against Florida and Texas laws back to the lower courts (see 2402270072). All nine justices agreed on remanding, but Justices Samuel Alito, Clarence Thomas and Neil Gorsuch disagreed with First Amendment-related aspects of the majority opinion, which Justice Elena Kagan wrote (dockets 22-555 and 22-277).

The statute authorizing the federal TikTok ban -- the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act -- is unconstitutional, and it isn’t even “a close case,” four professors’ amicus brief said Thursday (docket 24-1113), urging that the U.S. Appeals Court for the D.C. Circuit reject it.

The House Commerce Committee on Thursday canceled its scheduled privacy bill markup amid tensions with Republican leadership over the viability of a bipartisan bill from Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J.

California’s Senate Judiciary Committee voted 9-2 Tuesday to advance a bill that would force tech platforms to pay news publishers for the news content they carry, similar to approaches seen in Australia, Canada and Europe.

The 5th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court was "wrong" when it affirmed a district court’s “sweeping” preliminary injunction that barred dozens of White House officials and four federal agencies from coercing social media platforms to moderate their content, the U.S. Supreme Court said in a 6-3 decision Wednesday in Murthy v. Missouri (docket 23-411).

The FCC, intervenors and amici who benefit from E-rate funding contend that authorizing Wi-Fi on school buses will advance students’ education, but there’s “powerful and growing evidence to doubt that claim,” petitioners Maurine and Matthew Molak said in their 5th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court reply brief Monday (docket 23-60641).

Several governors put their signature on public safety and social media state bills in recent days. On Monday, Rhode Island Gov. Dan McKee (D) signed a bill (HB-7087) to quicken business responses to state-declared disasters by updating tax and business registration rules. CTIA supported the bill in February, testifying that “wireless providers need the flexibility to bring out-of-state employees into the state temporarily without having to subject those employees to state or local tax withholding or payments or subject them to state licensing or registration requirements during a declared disaster.” It takes effect immediately. On Friday, Hawaii Gov. Josh Green (D) signed HB-2339, which would remove the term “enhanced” from state 911 law so that Hawaii can fund future emergency number technologies. The bill becomes effective Monday. Last week, Louisiana Gov. Jeff Landry (R) supported barring social media companies from collecting data on residents younger than 18 for targeted ads. Landry signed HB-577, which earlier passed both chambers of the legislature unanimously (see 2405230039).

Forcing tech platforms to pay for news content isn’t the right approach to protect local journalism, a Public Knowledge policy expert, an independent lawyer and a local news publisher executive said Monday. They spoke against proposals like the California Journalism Preservation Act, which will be considered at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing Tuesday (see 2406120049). During a Computer & Communications Industry Association event, internet attorney Cathy Gellis said public discourse depends on access to information, and pay-for-news proposals reduce platforms’ incentives to share links. Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn., has championed a federal bill requiring platforms to pay to carry news (see 2309010048); similar proposals are seen in Canada and Australia. In the U.S., these proposals create First Amendment issues and conflicts with copyright law, whose purpose is ensuring the public benefits from copyrighted material, Gellis said. Public Knowledge Policy Director Lisa Macpherson noted the Copyright Office previously argued against copyright solutions for news publishers facing financial hardship (see 2206300023). Lion Publishers Executive Director Chris Krewson, who represents more than 500 independent news publishers, said saving small news outlets isn’t a journalism issue but rather a small-business problem. He said his members benefit from exposure and link-sharing on social media. The better solution is legislation that helps media startups with costs related to healthcare, media liability insurance and technology, said Krewson. "The death of your local newspaper is not the death of local news," he said, defending his members' ability to produce content independently.