The Supreme Court just upended internet law, and I have questions

Age verification is possibly the hottest battleground for online speech, and the Supreme Court conscionable settled a pivotal question: does utilizing it to gross big contented interruption the First Amendment successful the US? For roughly the past 20 years the reply has been "yes" - now, arsenic of Friday, it's an unambiguous "no."

Justice Clarence Thomas' opinion successful Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton is comparatively straightforward arsenic Supreme Court rulings go. To summarize, its decision is that:

• States person a valid involvement successful keeping kids distant from pornography
• Making radical beryllium their ages is simply a valid strategy to enforce that
• Internet property verification lone "incidentally" affects however adults tin entree protected speech
• The risks aren't meaningfully antithetic from showing your ID astatine a liquor store
• Yes, the Supreme Court threw retired property verification rules repeatedly successful the aboriginal 2000s, but the net of 2025 is truthful antithetic the aged reasoning nary longer applies.

Around this drawstring of logic, you'll find a immense fig of objections and unknowns. Many of these were laid retired earlier the decision: the Electronic Frontier Foundation has an overview of the issues, and 404 Media goes deeper on the imaginable …

Read the afloat communicative astatine The Verge.