On Wednesday, three of the world's most powerful technology companies did something they rarely do: they filed separate lawsuits against the same defendant on the same day. Google, Meta and TikTok are asking a federal court to stop California from enforcing Assembly Bill 1709, a law that Governor Gavin Newsom signed on 10 September and that is due to take effect on 1 January 2027. The law targets what it calls "psychologically exploitative features" in services used by children under 16. Personalised recommendations and autoplay, the tools that keep a video feed running without any decision from the viewer, are named as examples.

Platforms that offer such features to minors would also have to delete those children's accounts. The only defendant is Rob Bonta, the state attorney general, whose office says it is reviewing the cases and remains "committed to defending California's commonsense laws to protect kids online". The companies' arguments are similar but not identical. All three invoke the First Amendment and Section 230 of the federal Communications Decency Act, which broadly protects platforms from liability for user content.

Meta adds that deciding how to curate billions of posts is an editorial judgment, and that children could still spend unlimited hours on rival services. TikTok, owned by China's ByteDance, argues that protected speech cannot be suppressed merely to shield the young from material a legislature finds unsuitable. Google, which owns YouTube, says parents, not the state, should decide. The Electronic Frontier Foundation, a digital rights group, has also criticised the law as a threat to privacy and free speech.