Hyperfixation on the Act’s First Amendment implications could also obscure the harmful privacy practices that platforms regularly use, such as profiling kids by default or the use of dark patterns to manipulate their choices. In a digital press briefing by a group of civil society organizations calling itself The Kids’ Code Coalition shortly after the CAADCA was blocked, Megan Iorio, senior counsel at the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC), argued that Judge Freeman didn’t take seriously the list of widely-recognized harms often baked into a platform’s design. “The First Amendment doesn’t let a judge strike down laws simply because they disagree with the policy goals,” Iorio said.
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