Massachusetts Age Verification Bill (H. 5366) Opposition Letter

This letter is being led by Fight for the Future. This letter is not public yet, but can be shared with partner organizations for signatures. If you have any questions, please email sarahp@fightforthefuture.org. You can sign this letter here: https://airtable.com/appdcRplUialw6v7Y/shrlrqdjgURjexhg9 (Yes, we are still taking sign-ons!)

The Massachusetts House has advanced H. 5349 (now H. 5366), a draconian and unconstitutional bill that would ban minors from social media, force social media platforms to enable parental surveillance of teenagers’ online activity, and subject everyone to privacy-invading online ID checks in order to access information or speak out online.

Dozens of civil liberties, racial justice, LGBTQ+, press freedom, abortion access, and human rights organizations have spoken out against these dangerous and misguided “age verification” laws, several of which have had their constitutionality questioned by the courts.

And a Massachusetts-based coalition of LGBTQ groups including the The Queer Neighborhood Council, III Labs, Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition, ACLU of MA, and the Transgender Emergency Fund have specifically been pressuring local lawmakers on this issue. Late last year, the Boston City Council introduced a resolution condemning “age verification” and censorship legislation, citing harm to the city’s LGBTQ youth. 

Trans youth in Massachusetts are already terrified of losing their health care. They’re being terrorized by a bigoted administration. Now Massachusetts lawmakers are advancing legislation that would cut them off from access to lifesaving online resources and support? Shameful doesn’t begin to cover it. 

Big Tech social media companies cause real harm, and lawmakers are right to want to do something about it. They should pass privacy, antitrust, and algorithmic justice legislation that actually makes sense and is enforceable. Instead, Massachusetts legislators are actively helping Trump’s authoritarian takeover by pushing for legislation that expands censorship and surveillance. This bill is a gift to the Palantirs of the world—expanding Trump’s surveillance state by forcing everyone to associate their government ID with everything they post at a time when the DOJ is sending subpoenas to social media companies demanding they hand over the names of people running accounts critical of ICE. 

This legislation would make kids less safe, not more safe, while forcing everyone to upload their government ID or submit to a facial recognition scan in order to post online. The definition of “social media” in the bill is so wildly broad it would sweep in almost the entire Internet, including resources like Wikipedia. 

Even red states with conservative supermajorities have avoided some of the parental surveillance provisions present in the Massachusetts bill that raise serious concerns for the safety of LGBTQ youth and young people’s right to privacy. Requiring social media platforms to verify parental consent is completely unworkable. The logistics of this requirement are a nightmare: proving that an adult is a guardian of a child requires giving very sensitive information to social media platforms that are already ripe for data breaches and presents even more obstacles for young people in abusive families, foster care, and parents navigating complicated custody dynamics. This is an impractical and invasive idea that has been abandoned in almost every other version of this type of legislation across the country. 

Age verification and censorship legislation will hurt kids and benefit Big Tech. If Massachusetts lawmakers want to address harm, they should listen to experts, scrap this terrible bill, and instead advance privacy legislation that strikes at the heart of social media companies’ harmful business practices.

We recommend Massachusetts lawmakers engage with human rights groups on their concerns with this bill. We oppose any version of this bill that mandates invasive age verification, bans young people from social media, requires parental surveillance of teenagers, and strips everyone on the internet regardless of age of their anonymity.”

Additional resources on this topic:

• Teen Vogue “Some Democrats are Helping the Trump Admin’s Anti-LGBTQ Agenda”

• The Verge “Age Verification could force trans people to out themselves online”

• Wired “The Age Gated Internet is Sweeping the US. Activists are fighting back”

• ACLU analysis of why age verification violates the First Amendment

• Tech Policy Press “Age Verification is Locking Trans People Out of the Internet”

Signed,

Act on Mass

Advocates for Youth

Arts Equity Group

ArtsWorcester

Asian American Resource Workshop

Asian Pacific Islanders Civic Action Network - Massachusetts

Boston Democratic Socialists of America

Boston Sex Workers and Allies Collective

Brandeis Democrats

Digital Fourth

EducateUS

Episcopal City Misson

Fight for the Future

For Artists By Artists

Frizz Media

GreenRoots

Guardian Project

IfNotNow Boston

Indivisible Upper Cape

Intersectional Innovation and Impact (III) Labs

Jamaica Plain for Palestine

Jamaica Plain Progressives

Jewish Voice for Peace - Boston

Mass 50501

Massachusetts Pirate Party

Massachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC)

MassEquality

Matahari Women’s Worker Center

Mid Cape Indivisible

MRKH Intersex

Muslim Justice League

Neighborhood Grow Plan

North Shore Progressives

Old Pros Org

Pa'lante Transformative Justice

Parenting is Political

Partners in Sex Education

Progressive Massachusetts

Protect Trans Futures

Secular Student Alliance

SIECUS

Sierra Club Massachusetts

Somerville for Palestine

Student Clinic for Immigrant Justice (SCIJ)

Student Press Law Center

The Coalition for Student Mental Health

The Cordial Eye

The Queer Neighborhood Council

The Tor Project

Unitarian Universalist Mass Action Network

United American Indians of New England (UAINE)

V'ahavtah: A Judaism Beyond Zionism Synagogue

Woodhull Freedom Foundation

Yale Privacy Lab