Analysis | Meta says it won’t support suit against major child safety law (2024)

The social media giant would not back an attempt to block the measure in court, a lawyer for the firm Rifkin Weiner Livingston wrote in a previously unreported email to Maryland Del. Jared Solomon (D-Montgomery), according to a screenshot obtained by the Tech Brief.

The surprise pledge stood in sharp contrast to the combative posture from Meta’s lobbying groups, which had fought weeks prior to stop the law from passing.

It highlights a disconnect on child safety for some tech companies, who have embraced proposed safeguards even as they fund groups trying to neutralize them.

Gov. Wes Moore (D) in May signed the Maryland Kids Code, which requires digital services to enable stronger privacy settings for children by default; inspect their products for potential risks; and consider “the best interests of children” when designing new products. State lawmakers overwhelmingly passed it despite facing significant opposition from tech industry groups.

NetChoice, the Chamber of Progress and CCIA — trade groups that all count Meta and other tech companies as members — testified in opposition to the bill, warning that it would actually upend platforms’ efforts to filter out harmful content and chill children’s expression online.

Amid concern that NetChoice would also challenge the similar Maryland law, Solomon and other state lawmakers urged the group’s member companies in letters last month to “comply” and “not attempt to undermine this bipartisan, lifesaving effort by suing to block its enactment.”

“Meta is not aware of a legal challenge to [the] Maryland Kids Code and does not plan to support one,” Meta’s outside law firm wrote in response to the letter.

Solomon said that while he is “pleased they will not support a lawsuit,” he hopes Meta “will urge their partners at NetChoice, which they help fund, to do the same and help us implement these common sense protections for kids instead of trying to needlessly drag this through the courts.”

It’s not immediately clear how Meta might hold back any financial support for NetChoice or another group if they sue Maryland. Meta declined to comment; The company has said it does “not always agree with every policy or position that individual organizations or their leadership [they contribute to] take.” NetChoice did not return a request for comment.

Other tech companies who fund the trade group have come under fire for endorsing online safety bills at the federal level that NetChoice is actively opposing.

But Snap and X are also members of NetChoice, which is vocally opposed to the legislation and has called it unconstitutional — foreshadowing a potential future challenge.

In February, the left-leaning advocacy group Accountable Tech launched a digital ad campaign calling on the two companies to leave NetChoice and “stop funding Big Tech’s lobbying against bipartisan legislation to protect kids online.”

X did not return a request for comment. Snap declined to comment. Microsoft, which owns LinkedIn, has also endorsed the Kids Online Safety Act but is not a member of NetChoice.

NetChoice also counts Amazon, Google, Etsy and Pinterest as members, among others. (Amazon founder Jeff Bezos owns The Washington Post.)

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