The Eleventh Circuit recently vacated a preliminary injunction blocking enforcement of Georgia’s social media law, which had an effective date of July 1, 2025. Enforcement was temporarily blocked in June 2025, shortly before the law’s effective date. The decision is not a final resolution; the case has instead been remanded to the lower court. Once the Eleventh Circuit decision takes effect, absent further court relief, the injunction will no longer prevent the Attorney General from enforcing the challenged provisions.
The law applies to online forums that allow account holders to create profiles, upload posts, view and listen to posts, form mutual connections, and interact publicly and privately with other account holders and users. Specifically excluded are services whose predominant or exclusive function falls within certain categories, including email, online shopping, gaming, and cloud storage. Under the law, covered platforms must make commercially reasonable efforts to verify account holders’ ages, and obtain parental consent before allowing children under 16 to hold accounts. They are also prohibited from displaying ads to those children based on personal information other than their ages and locations.
The law was challenged on First Amendment grounds. To reach its decision, the Eleventh Circuit relied on the Supreme Court’s Moody v. NetChoice decision, which requires a challenger seeking to invalidate a law as a whole to address its full range of applications. The Eleventh Circuit found that here, the challenger had not supplied enough for the court to assess if unconstitutional applications of the law would substantially outweigh constitutional ones. The court also rejected the other grounds supporting the injunction, and remanded the case to the district court. It did not decide whether the challenged requirements ultimately satisfy the First Amendment.
Putting it Into Practice: This decision brings the law back into focus for companies, especially given its July 1, 2025 statutory effective date. Once the appellate judgment takes effect, the injunction will no longer block enforcement, absent further court relief. Since further movement in this case seems likely, it serves as another reminder of the importance of having a nimble privacy compliance posture that allows for flexibility in the light of constant legislative activity. This flexibility can be a helpful approach even for companies not in scope for this law.