Snapchat files lawsuit against Utah AG over ‘threats’ to require age verification

Editor’s Note: A lawsuit only portrays one side of the story.

SALT LAKE CITY (ABC4) — Snap Inc. has filed a lawsuit against Utah for the laws they are trying to put in place that would limit minors’ access to social media. The lawsuit argues that the Utah Attorney General has tried to circumvent previous rulings regarding the enforcement of social media laws and threatened to sue Snap.

Snap Inc. (Snapchat’s parent company) has filed a lawsuit against Utah’s Attorney General Derek Brown over what they are calling “unlawful threatened actions” to “impose requirements on Snap through civil litigation.”

They cite the Utah Minor Protection in Social Media Act of 2024 as the reason that they feel violates their rights, as well as a letter sent to Snap’s legal team that claimed they violated Utah’s laws.

The Utah Minor Protection in Social Media Act would require that social media companies create an “age assurance system” that could “enable a social media company to identify whether a current or prospective Utah account holder is a minor with an accuracy rate of at least 95%,” according to the text of the act.

“Snap has invested hundreds of millions of dollars into moderation teams, trust and safety teams, and law enforcement teams, which has resulted in a doubling of the size of its Trust and Safety team and a tripling of the size of its Law Enforcement Operations team since 2020,” the lawsuit argues.

The lawsuit claims that Snap has a shared goal of keeping young people safe online, but it argues that its platform is meant to “foster constitutionally protected speech and expression.” It states that laws that govern technology are necessary, though in some cases they can “impose unduly restrictive, technologically infeasible, and/or speech stifling requirements.”

Previously, in September 2024, a federal judge temporarily blocked the Utah Minor Protection in Social Media Act. During a court case between NetChoice, LLC and former Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes, the act was preliminarily enjoined, meaning that the act could not go into effect until the court’s final decision.

Snap alleges in the lawsuit that Attorney General Brown has “threatened to sue Snap because of purportedly inadequate age verification requirements and age-related ‘guardrails.'” The lawsuit argues that this is the Attorney General’s attempt to “end-run around this Court’s ruling” regarding the previously decided preliminary injunction.

The lawsuit further states that Snap has legal standing to “assert the First Amendment rights of its users.” They argue that the collection of age-verification data in the manner that the Utah Minor Protection in Social Media Act is requesting is “invasive and burdensome.”

The teams at Snap that work on trust and safety work alongside law enforcement and the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children, Snap states. They also argue that they comply with the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Rule (COPPA). Snap says that it has already proven its diligence in ensuring that users under the age of 18 have limited services compared to adult users and that it works to address any instances of child sexual abuse.

The lawsuit outlines three claims: Utah’s AG has violated the First Amendment rights of Snap and its users, violated Snap’s rights under the Communications Decency Act, and that it should be ruled that Snap does not violate COPPA.

Snap is asking for a temporary restraining order on any order or lawsuit that requires age verification, parental consent, or other safety features, and private information on Snap. The lawsuit also asks that the court preliminarily and permanently enjoin Utah’s AG from filing a lawsuit or launching an investigation for anything involving age verification or parental consent.

ABC4.com has reached out to the Utah Attorney General’s Office for a statement on this lawsuit. The full text of the lawsuit is below.