A federal judge in Ohio has issued an emergency restraining order blocking enforcement of a new state law that would have required some large tech platforms, including Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest and YouTube, to ban minors under 16, without parental consent.
The tech industry group NetChoice is suing to block an Ohio law that requires a wide swath of platforms — including Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, Threads, X and YouTube — to obtain parental consent before allowing access to minors under 16. In a federal complaint filed late last week in the Southern District of Ohio, NetChoice says the law violates the First Amendment for several reasons, including that it wrongly restricts minors’ rights to express themselves and access others’ speech, and only applies to certain social platforms.
Ohio has a court date for the first-of-its-kind lawsuit against Google. Delaware County Common Pleas Court set May 14 as the date Attorney General Dave Yost begins his case against the internet search giant in an effort to have it declared a common carrier and subject to government regulation.
At issue before the court was whether the state tax commissioner properly subjected NASCAR broadcasts to Ohio’s commercial activities tax during an audit from 2005 to 2010. The tax requires payments on a company’s annual sales. The court ruled that the Daytona Beach, Fla.-based NASCAR’s broadcast revenue, licensing revenue, media revenue and sponsorship fees were wrongly subjected to the tax.
Some of the best promotional copy ever written on behalf of broadcasters comes from Congress — and the latest to hail broadcast service are members of the Ohio delegation to the Hill, who ask that Ohio broadcasters emerge whole from the incentive auction due to their importance to residents of the state.
Exclusives
Gov. John Kasich’s administration quickly stepped back from an attempt to ban TV cameras and broadcast audio recording equipment from a press conference on his state budget plan.The ban drew immediate protests from the Statehouse press corps, the ACLU of Ohio and the Ohio Democratic Party.
