LOS ANGELES — Free Speech Coalition (FSC) has filed a legal challenge in Texas over the state’s age-verification law.
The Texas law requires users to provide identification to access adult content, and mandates that adult sites post pseudoscientific "warning labels" about adult content's supposed deleterious public health effects.
As XBIZ reported, FSC filed a similar suit against the state of Utah in May, and Louisiana in June.
Today's statement announcing the lawsuit follows:
Free Speech Coalition, the advocacy organization for the adult industry, has filed a legal challenge in Texas over the state’s unconstitutional age-verification law. As with laws FSC has challenged laws in Louisiana and Utah, Texas forces consumers to provide identification information to access adult content. In addition, the Texas law requires that adult sites carry pseudoscientific “warning labels.”
FSC Executive Director Alison Boden:
“Texas is not only forcing sites to put their visitors’ privacy at risk, they are forcing them to broadcast misinformation and pseudoscience about sex and sexuality. We are standing up not only for the rights of adult businesses and creators, but for the rights of adult Texans to access legal content in the privacy of their own home, without having to submit to surveillance or propaganda. We can all work to keep minors from accessing adult content, but allowing the government to dictate what information adults can see is unconscionable and unconstitutional.”
Joining Free Speech Coalition as co-plaintiffs are an array of adult platforms and workers, including MG Premium LTD; MG Freesites LTD; Webgroup Czech Republic, A.S.; NKL Associates, S.R.O.; Sonesta Technologies, S.R.O.; Sonesta Media, S.R.O.; Yellow Production S.R.O.; Paper Street Media, LLC; Neptune Media, LLC; Mediame SRL; Midus Holdings, INC.; and Jane Doe, an adult content creator.The Texas complaint can be found here.
For more information, visit FreeSpeechCoalition.