🚨 California Threatens Free Speech Yet Again: NetChoice Sues to Stop Unskippable Government Warnings on Social Media LOS ANGELES, Calif.—NetChoice sued California yesterday to stop the government's latest attack on websites that display fully protected speech. AB 56 is a law that will force websites to put up state-scripted "warning" messages discouraging Californians from using online services and promoting the government's controversial views on social media. This is compelled speech, a direct violation of the First Amendment. "The First Amendment is not a suggestion,” said @Paul_Taske, Director of the NetChoice Litigation Center. “California cannot force a private website to act as a mouthpiece for its preferred message. The State is free to speak for itself, but the Constitution forbids it from forcing others to speak for it. A federal court already blocked Colorado's nearly identical law, and there is no First Amendment exception for California.” WHY CALIFORNIANS SHOULD CARE: 1. The warnings take up as much as 75% of the screen for up to 30 seconds, cannot be skipped, and come back up every hour after three hours online, no matter how many times users have seen them. 2. An unconstitutional law protects no one, and in this case, it actively undermines the public's access to diverse perspectives and information. 3. California is exploiting legitimate concerns about mental health to justify its attacks on speech services. 4. Politicians are using "public health" as a backdoor way to control online speech. States cannot do by "warning label" what they are unable to do by outright ban. A federal court already blocked Colorado's nearly identical law on First Amendment grounds, and California's should fall too. 5. California doesn't trust adults to make their own choices, or parents to make decisions for their own families. Unless a site has verified a user is over 17, everyone gets the warning.