JACKSONVILLE, Florida, March 10, 2026, 19:33 EDT
Snap Inc, which owns Snapchat, found itself thrust back into the legal spotlight Tuesday as a U.S. appeals court granted Florida and Georgia another chance to scrutinize state laws curbing minors’ social media use. Judges also took up Florida’s push to restart a different case targeting Snapchat. Reuters
This isn’t just about Snap. The company is part of industry groups fighting the legislation, and last year Florida took Snap to court, accusing it of addicting kids. Regulators in Australia, India, and elsewhere are also stepping up with their own bans and new age-verification rules. Reuters
Florida’s law for 2024 blocks anyone under 14 from using platforms that include what lawmakers describe as addictive features—think video autoplay or feeds with endless scroll, constantly serving up fresh posts as users swipe. Over in Georgia, the state law brings in age verification requirements, forcing platforms to confirm a user’s age before letting accounts start or stay active, and demands parental sign-off for every minor. Reuters
Some of the states’ points seemed to land better with this panel than in previous rounds. Circuit Judge Robert Luck pressed on whether it’s possible to toss out Florida’s law entirely without considering every scenario where it could come into play. Acting solicitor general Jeffrey DeSousa leaned into that, arguing Florida should prevail at least on that basis. Reuters
Snap didn’t hold back. “What the state is really trying to do here is block teenagers from sharing their opinion on these social media platforms and on Snapchat, and that is a content-based distinction,” argued Snap attorney Katie Wellington to the panel. Judges Kevin Newsom and Luck pushed back on her argument. Meta Platforms, for its part, is also fighting the same legal battle through industry trade groups. Reuters
The hearing left plenty unresolved, with age verification tech still hit-or-miss. In Australia, Snapchat axed roughly 415,000 possible underage accounts after the teen social-media ban kicked in. But Iain Corby, who heads the Age Verification Providers Association, argued that platforms are mostly just ticking boxes out of concern the crackdown could catch on elsewhere. “They are extremely worried this is going to be contagious,” he said. Reuters
Regulators are pressing ahead regardless. Australia has shut out users under 16 from top platforms; Britain could soon follow suit. Karnataka, just last week, became the first Indian state to block social media for kids under 16. Indonesia is gearing up for its own rules. Back in February, Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, writing in an op-ed for the company, described Australia’s law as a “high-stakes experiment” with global attention fixed on the outcome. Reuters
That’s significant for Snap, which is still working to stabilize its business after years of choppy ad growth. Back in February, the company reported a 28% jump in active advertisers for the fourth quarter and a 10% bump in revenue to $1.72 billion. But eMarketer analyst Max Willens noted Snap remains far from landing the big enterprise budgets it wants, so youth-access requirements add yet another layer of concern for investors. Reuters
