California bans algorithmic feeds for teenagers, escalating social media regulation
Source: The Next Web
California's move to prohibit personalized recommendation feeds and autoplay for under-16s represents the first U.S. state-level restriction on algorithmic curation itself—not just content moderation or data collection—setting a stricter baseline than both the EU's Digital Services Act and Australia's online safety framework. This creates immediate compliance pressure on platforms like TikTok, Instagram, and YouTube, which have built their engagement models around algorithmic targeting, and establishes California as a regulatory proving ground that other states will likely copy, fragmenting the U.S. market in ways federal legislation has so far avoided. Enforceability remains the open question: whether platforms will engineer separate feeds for California users or challenge the law in court. Either way, algorithmic recommendation—not just data or content—is now a direct regulatory target.