Free speech issues raised as calls come for Pritzker to veto social
media safety bill
[June 11, 2026]
By Sean Reed | The Center Square
(The Center Square) – Since the Illinois General Assembly passed a bill
aiming to increase protections for children online, concerns have been
raised by industry groups about the measure’s constitutionality.
One group opposed, NetChoice, urged the governor to veto the legislation
when it arrives at his desk – but he already said he intends to sign it.
NetChoice is a trade association representing internet giants like
Google, Meta, TikTok and X.
Officially dubbed the “Child Social Media Safety Act,” House Bill 5511
was sponsored by state Rep. Jennifer Gong-Gershowitz, D-Glenview, and
state Sen. Willie Preston, D-Chicago.
In a statement this week, Gong-Gershowitz reiterated she believes the
law will allow parents the ability to better control the content shown
to their children – which would be done through a one time, device-level
age verification.
Amy Bos, the vice president of government affairs for NetChoice, told
The Center Square the bill would instead reduce protections for children
– and all Illinoisans – on the internet.
“There's a real irony at its heart. A bill that is written to protect
minors requires collecting birth dates, requires collecting age data on
every user in Illinois, creating exactly the kind of sensitive database
about minors that, quite frankly, predators and hackers would love to
get their hands on,” Bos said.
Gong-Gershowitz said before the bill passed the algorithms designed to
place content on the feeds of children and teens are highly-addictive.
Bos noted the bill is far from the only one of its kind.
“These are the same provisions that federal courts have blocked in state
after state, and candidly NetChoice has challenged in states,” Bos said.
NetChoice recently sent a letter to Gov. J.B. Pritzker which urged him
to veto the legislation over what Bos described as First Amendment
issues.
“When you're talking about restrictions on personalized feeds, they've
been clear the government can't mandate a chronological feed any more
than it could mandate how stories are run in the Chicago Tribune,” Bos
said.
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Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker speaks during an event. Photo:
BlueRoomStream / Screenshot
Expanding beyond state boundaries, NetChoice has challenged similar
laws in numerous states over the past few years on the same grounds.
Bos made a point to say her organization wants to see children have
more protection online, but the laws that have popped up across the
nation aren’t the solution.
Bos described what direction NetChoice thinks the state could
instead take.
“The gap really isn't in the tools available. I think education and
parental empowerment do work, unconstitutional mandates don't,” Bos
said. “Florida and Virginia really kind of led the way on this in
their digital literacy tools in their teen online safety courses.
And we've been promoting that. A privacy law also goes a very long
way to robust privacy protections.”
A bill passed by Minnesota’s legislature is similar to the one
passed in Springfield, though instead of true age verification, it
requires tech companies to utilize existing user data to determine
an age estimation.
Bos said there’s an appetite in Congress to pass child-protecting
legislation, though what specifics it includes could impact if any
sort of federal law will actually come to fruition.
“It's whether that approach can pass constitutional muster that will
be the trick here and that it actually does what it says it's going
to do, protect kids online,” Bos said. “It looks like there may be
something moving in the next couple of weeks here on that.”
Multiple attempts to pass a federal Kids Online Safety Act have
stalled through multiple years, with a package passing the Senate in
2024, before not being taken up in the House.
All signs point to Pritzker signing the legislation into law soon,
which could lead to a challenge in federal court.
NetChoice hasn’t specifically threatened to challenge the Illinois
law if signed, but Bos said that the route of litigation is one they
take as a last resort, and they prefer open dialogue.
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