Google, Meta and TikTok filed separate lawsuits seeking to block a California law designed to protect children from the risks of social media, arguing that it violates their First Amendment rights.
The law, which is scheduled to go into effect on Jan. 1, 2027, prohibits tech companies from offering addictive feeds, endless scrolling and autoplayed videos to kids under 16. They must also implement “reasonable measures” to make sure those under 16 are not given access to the addictive features by verifying users' ages. Gov. Gavin Newsom signed it into law in September.
The companies each filed their lawsuits in federal courts in San Francisco, Los Angeles and San Jose, California. In addition to the First Amendment, TikTok, Meta and Google argue that the law violates Section 230 of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, which shields tech companies from liability for material posted on their sites by third parties.
The lawsuits come as tech companies face increasing scrutiny over their platforms' harms to children, including thousands of lawsuits by schools, governments and individual plaintiffs.
In August, Meta agreed to pay up to $18 billion and add stronger child-safety measures to its Facebook and Instagram platforms as part of a landmark legal settlement that ended a trial over teen social media addiction and settled claims filed by nearly every state. The settlement resolved a pivotal case years in the making that sought to hold the tech giant accountable for the role its platforms played in undermining children’s mental health. The effort targeted features designed to hook young people’s attention. In September, TikTok settled with Alabama over addictive features.
The office of California Attorney General Rob Bonta, the defendant in each of the lawsuits, said Thursday it was reviewing the filings and that it was committed to defending state laws to protect kids online.
TikTok called the law “a blatantly unconstitutional restriction on free expression that erodes the long-standing and protected practice of curating content based on user preferences, which bookstores, TV networks and streaming services all use.”
The company said it has implemented numerous safety measures for kids on its platform, adding that beyond “disregarding real progress in making teens safer online, this law limits free speech and takes away parents’ rights to determine what’s appropriate for their kids.”
Meta said the law violates the First Amendment “by letting the government dictate how ideas are organized, displayed, or shared with Californians.”
“Under the law, we would be forced to either remove features that keep teens’ experiences age-appropriate, or cut thousands of California teens off from family, friends, and their communities,” the company said in a statement.
Google said it believes parents are in the best position to make decisions for their families and that it offers a range of parental control tools and protections.
“Overly broad laws like this actually break the systems we’ve built to help kids find high-quality, age-appropriate videos,” said spokesman José Castañeda.
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Associated Press Writer Sophie Austin contributed to this story from Sacramento.
FILE - California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks at the Bay Area Discovery Museum, Sept. 10, 2026, in Sausalito, Calif. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu, File)
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Thursday that he’ll change more than 500 death sentences in the state to life in prison without the possibility of parole, though the state Supreme Court will have the final say in hundreds of those cases.
“I take this action because I firmly believe that state-sanctioned killing is incompatible with California’s values, undermines the foundations of our legal system, and diminishes each of us,” Newsom said in a public letter.
Newsom’s decision comes as he prepares to leave office after eight years and considers a run for president. The Democrat, who’s long been opposed to the death penalty, placed a moratorium on executions in California in 2019.
His latest move came after he realized “the limits of what government can justly accomplish,” he said.
Newsom moved to grant clemency to 548 people currently sentenced to death in California, of whom 529 are men and 19 are women, according to numbers provided by his office.
The state constitution requires the California Supreme Court’s approval to grant clemency to anyone convicted of a felony more than once, which means the court would have to approve 382 of those commutations, or roughly 70%, according to Newsom's office.
According to the Death Penalty Information Center, Newsom’s action represents the largest mass clemency in American history. If they are all approved, it would reduce the U.S. death row population by nearly 30%, the center said.
Americans have long been divided over the death penalty. Nearly half of U.S. states have banned capital punishment outright, but executions are still carried out routinely around the country. On Thursday alone, Florida, Alabama and Indiana carried out lethal injections.
Californians voted to uphold the death penalty in 2012 and 2016 ballot measures. No one has been executed in the state since 2006 and California has the largest death row in the Western Hemisphere.
Among the most notorious convicted killers on California’s death row are Richard Allen Davis, who kidnapped and murdered 12-year-old Polly Klaas in 1993, and Randy Kraft, the so-called “Scorecard Killer” who kept a list of his 16 victims in the 1970s and ’80s. Other prominent killers, including Scott Peterson and the Manson family members, received death sentences that were later commuted to life in prison.
Jess Nichol, Klaas' sister, said she previously believed Davis deserved the death penalty, but her views evolved.
“The system tells survivors that execution matters to our healing,” Nichol said in a statement. “It doesn’t. It’s a distraction from what we actually need.”
Newsom said the decision was among the most difficult choices of his career because it will surface painful memories for crime victims’ families.
“As Governor, I alone bear responsibility for this decision and its impact, just as I alone would bear responsibility for each execution,” Newsom wrote.
The American Civil Liberties Union, which has said the implementation of the death penalty reflects racial bias, applauded the announcement.
“These commutations reflect what justice demands: an end to a racist, error-prone, and inhumane punishment that has burdened California for far too long,” Executive Director Anthony Romero said in a statement.
The ACLU is involved in an ongoing legal challenge to California’s death penalty statute, alleging it is racially discriminatory and unconstitutional.
Patricia Wenskunas, founder of the California advocacy nonprofit Crime Survivors, which opposed the abolition of the death penalty, criticized Newsom's decision.
“My heart hurts for every one of the victims and every one of their family members,” she said, calling the decision “offensive” and “outrageous.”
Steve Herr, whose son Sam Herr was murdered along with his friend Julie Kibuishi by Daniel Wozniak in 2010, said he was “absolutely disgusted” by the governor's decision. He said the death of his son's killer would have meant closure.
“When somebody commits such a heinous crime, they do not deserve to live,” Herr said. “To hear what Newsom just did … he’s just an outright coward.”
The California District Attorneys Association condemned the decision. Last month, the group sent a letter to Newsom expressing “grave concerns” about him considering the move and warning that such a sweeping action would inflict additional pain on victims’ relatives.
“With the stroke of a pen, Governor Newsom has disregarded the decisions of hundreds of jurors and judges, and the anguish of families who lost loved ones to the worst crimes imaginable,” CDAA President Jeannine M. Pacioni said in a statement. “The victims were never given a commutation. Their families were never given a choice. They deserve far better than this.”
San Luis Obispo County District Attorney Dan Dow called the move a “sickening abuse of power.”
Dow referenced Rachel Newhouse and Aundria Crawford, two women who were kidnapped, raped and murdered by Rex Allan Krebs in 1999, and Kesha Gurke, a 19-month-old girl tortured and murdered by Michael Whisenhunt in 1995.
“San Luis Obispo County juries sentenced both men to death. A unanimous California Supreme Court affirmed both judgments. Their families have waited decades for the State of California to keep its word. Today, the Governor broke it,” Dow said.
Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer also condemned the decision, calling it “mercy for the wolves and while inflicting the ultimate act of cruelty on the sheep.”
Newsom has said in the past that it is wrong for the government to kill its citizens and that capital punishment in practice has discriminated against mentally ill people and people of color.
Other governors have granted broad clemency to all death row prisoners in their states, including Gov. Kate Brown in Oregon in 2022 and Gov. Jared Polis in Colorado in 2020. Both are Democrats. In 1986, then-New Mexico Gov. Toney Anaya, a Democrat, commuted the death sentences of all five inmates then on death row.
In 2024, President Joe Biden also granted clemency to 37 out of 40 federal prisoners sentenced to death.
Xavier Becerra, a Democrat who will take over from Newsom in January, has said he will extend the state’s moratorium on the death penalty.
Ding and Weber reported from Los Angeles.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom attends a rally with members of the state's Democratic Party, organized labor, and other advocates in San Francisco, Friday, Oct. 23, 2026. (AP Photo/Heather Diehl)
File - Chairs are lined up in the witness gallery outside the death chamber at San Quentin State Prison in San Quentin, Calif., Sept. 21, 2010. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)
California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during a campaign event ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026, in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jill Connelly)
California Gov. Gavin Newsom speaks during a campaign event ahead of the Nov. 3 midterms on Sunday, Nov. 1, 2026, in the Hollywood section of Los Angeles. (AP Photo/Jill Connelly)
