ATLANTA, Georgia — A federal appeals court on October 15 vacated the preliminary injunction blocking Georgia’s social-media age-verification law, a development affecting access to digital audiences and advertising directed at children under 16.
The United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit’s opinion sends the case back to the district court. It does not finally resolve whether the law violates the First Amendment. The panel said NetChoice had not supplied the record needed for its broad challenge to the law.
Under Senate Bill 351, covered platforms must make commercially reasonable efforts to verify account holders’ ages and obtain parental consent for Georgia users under 16. The law also restricts personalized advertising to those minors, allowing targeting based on age and location but not other personal information.
The statute excludes services predominantly devoted to streaming, provider-selected news, sports or entertainment, and comments on digital news websites. Those exemptions matter: the ruling is not a blanket age-check requirement for every broadcaster’s website or online stream.
The court also rejected the grounds used to support preliminary relief on vagueness and federal Section 230 preemption. Section 230 is the Communications Decency Act provision limiting certain liability for third-party content.
Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr’s office said the ruling clears the way for enforcement. NetChoice’s updated case page confirms the injunction was vacated while maintaining its objections on speech and privacy grounds.
For media businesses, the operational question is how covered platforms will implement account and advertising restrictions. Radio News Now has not verified platform-specific changes, an enforcement timetable or any request for further court relief.