A law that the technology giants do not like. A new regulation, the Texas App Store Accountability Act, is expected to go into effect on January 1, 2026. Its goal: protect minors by imposing age verification in the Apple and Google application stores.
An obligation that angered the two companies, which decided to retaliate. The Computer and Communications Industry Association (CCIA), a nonprofit organization representing the information and communications technology industries, recently filed a lawsuit against the state of Texas. “The Texas App Store Accountability Act imposes an extensive censorship regime,” considers the CCIA, which also claims that this law violates the First Amendment of the United States Constitution. The latter protects in particular freedom of expression.
Freedom of expression?
The CCIA criticizes Texas for wanting to force App Store and Play Store users to undergo a “tedious and privacy-invasive” age verification procedure to prevent them from accessing inappropriate content. “We support online protection measures for young Internet users, but these measures must not be detrimental to freedom of expression and privacy,” criticized Stephanie Joyce, vice president of the CCIA.
With this regulation, in fact it would be up to the application stores to estimate the age of the users, so that a person considered under 18 years of age would be prohibited from downloading almost all of the applications offered there without the consent of their parents.
This law would also affect developers, who would be forced to classify their content into various subcategories based on age, but also to explain their decision in detail. They would also be required to inform the App Store and Play Store in writing whenever they improve or modify the features or user experience of their applications.
This is not the first time that the two technology giants have shown their opposition to this regulation. Last May, Apple CEO Tim Cook reportedly called the state’s Republican governor to dissuade him from adopting it or at least changing it. But this attempt clearly failed.
Source: BFM TV
