Tech Group Challenges Minnesota Law Demanding Mental Health Warning Labels on Social Media Platforms

Minnesota is facing a challenge to its law requiring social media companies to display mental health warning labels to users.Last year, Minnesota became the first state to pass a law requiring that social media companies display warning labels about the negative impacts the platforms could have on users’ mental health. The law also requires users to accept the risk before the messages disappear. A tech trade group, NetChoice, filed a federal lawsuit on Wednesday, challenging the law on First Amendment grounds. The lawsuit says the law, which is set to take effect in July, will “force an overbroad and vaguely defined set of ‘social media’ websites and applications to provide a state-authored warning about the constitutionally protected speech on the platform to every user every single time they access the site.”“That is true whether the user is seventeen or seventy, whether she is watching a cooking tutorial or following a presidential campaign. She cannot permanently dismiss the warning. She cannot make it disappear without first ‘acknowledg[ing] the potential for harm and choos[ing] to proceed … despite the risk,’’ the complaint says. “And she cannot avoid it no matter how many hundreds of times she has already complied.”Supporters of the law say it will educate users about the potential mental health harms, while providing them with access to mental health resources. The Minnesota Department of Health released a list of messages to be displayed by social media platforms. One message states, “Many images are edited and may affect your self-esteem and mood. Try not to compare yourself to unreal images.”Another message warns users that “using social media late at night may interfere with sleep and focus the next day.” It recommends that they set a time to stop using social media. The law comes amid an increased focus on the potential mental health risks of social media. In 2024, the surgeon general, Vivek Murthy, called for warning labels to be placed on social media platforms as he noted studies in which roughly half of adolescents said social media made them feel worse about their bodies.However, NetChoice says warning labels represent an unconstitutional attempt by Minnesota to “place conditions on the right to publish lawful speech.”The co-director of the NetChoice Litigation Center, Paul Taske, said in a statement, “In order to disseminate speech in Minnesota, websites must now parrot the State’s views about social media’s alleged harms. That’s unconstitutional. It doesn’t matter whether it’s a billboard, newspaper, or website; the government can’t force publishers to disseminate its propaganda.”He noted Minnesota does not require gaming platforms or TV networks to display similar warning labels, and argued the law unfairly targets social media companies. In December, New York passed a similar law requiring warning labels for social media. And in November, a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction to block a Colorado law that requires social media platforms to display reminders of the potential health risks for young users if they use the platforms for more than an hour at a time or between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.Minnesota’s attorney general’s office said it is reviewing the lawsuit.

Tech Group Challenges Minnesota Law Demanding Mental Health Warning Labels on Social Media Platforms

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