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  "path": "/news/2026-05-11-new-letter-massachusetts-social-media-ban-will-help-trump-and-will-not-keep-kids-safe-from-big-tech",
  "publishedAt": "2026-05-11T17:44:36.000Z",
  "site": "https://www.fightforthefuture.org",
  "tags": [
    "has advanced",
    "have spoken out",
    "questioned",
    "coalition",
    "been pressuring",
    "citing harm",
    "terrified",
    "access",
    "“Some Democrats are Helping the Trump Admin’s Anti-LGBTQ Agenda”",
    "“Age Verification could force trans people to out themselves online”",
    "“The Age Gated Internet is Sweeping the US. Activists are fighting back”",
    "ACLU analysis of why age verification violates the First Amendment",
    "“Age Verification is Locking Trans People Out of the Internet”"
  ],
  "textContent": "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.\n\nDozens 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.\n\nAnd 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.\n\nTrans 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.\n\nBig 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.\n\nThis 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.\n\nEven 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.\n\nAge 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.\n\nWe 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.\n\nAdditional resources on this topic:\n\n  * Teen Vogue “Some Democrats are Helping the Trump Admin’s Anti-LGBTQ Agenda”\n  * The Verge “Age Verification could force trans people to out themselves online”\n  * Wired “The Age Gated Internet is Sweeping the US. Activists are fighting back”\n  * ACLU analysis of why age verification violates the First Amendment\n  * Tech Policy Press “Age Verification is Locking Trans People Out of the Internet”\n\n\n\nSigned,\n\nAct on Mass\n\nAdvocates for Youth\n\nArts Equity Group\n\nArtsWorcester\n\nAsian American Resource Workshop\n\nAsian Pacific Islanders Civic Action Network – Massachusetts\n\nBoston Democratic Socialists of America\n\nBoston Sex Workers and Allies Collective\n\nBrandeis Democrats\n\nDigital Fourth\n\nEducateUS\n\nEpiscopal City Misson\n\nFight for the Future\n\nFor Artists By Artists\n\nFrizz Media\n\nGreenRoots\n\nGuardian Project\n\nIfNotNow Boston\n\nIndivisible Upper Cape\n\nIntersectional Innovation and Impact (III) Labs\n\nJamaica Plain for Palestine\n\nJamaica Plain Progressives\n\nJewish Voice for Peace – Boston\n\nMass 50501\n\nMassachusetts Pirate Party\n\nMassachusetts Transgender Political Coalition (MTPC)\n\nMassEquality\n\nMatahari Women’s Worker Center\n\nMid Cape Indivisible\n\nMRKH Intersex\n\nMuslim Justice League\n\nNeighborhood Grow Plan\n\nNorth Shore Progressives\n\nOld Pros Org\n\nPa’lante Transformative Justice\n\nParenting is Political\n\nPartners in Sex Education\n\nProgressive Massachusetts\n\nProtect Trans Futures\n\nSecular Student Alliance\n\nSIECUS\n\nSierra Club Massachusetts\n\nSomerville for Palestine\n\nStudent Clinic for Immigrant Justice (SCIJ)\n\nStudent Press Law Center\n\nThe Coalition for Student Mental Health\n\nThe Cordial Eye\n\nThe Queer Neighborhood Council\n\nThe Tor Project\n\nUnitarian Universalist Mass Action Network\n\nUnited American Indians of New England (UAINE)\n\nV’ahavtah: A Judaism Beyond Zionism Synagogue\n\nWoodhull Freedom Foundation\n\nYale Privacy Lab",
  "title": "NEW LETTER: Massachusetts social media ban will help Trump and will not keep kids safe from Big Tech"
}