A New Era of Internet Regulation Is About to Begin

For three decades, America ran a radical experiment: What if the government only lightly regulated the most powerful communication medium ever invented? In the foundational Supreme Court cases of the 1990s that shielded the nascent internet from censorship, and in the sweeping immunity that’s been granted to platforms under Section 230, the reigning philosophy was one of libertarian restraint—usually in the name of protecting Americans’ freedom of speech and expression. The Supreme Court just signaled that the experiment is coming to an end. In June 2025, in Free Speech Coalition v. Paxton, the Court upheld a Texas law requiring websites with sexually explicit material to verify the age of their users, despite the burden this imposes on adults who have a First Amendment right to view such content. This case’s true importance lies not in its effect on the adult-entertainment industry, but in the shift it demarcates in America’s willingness to regulate digital technology at all. The ruling marks a definitive end to the internet’s laissez-faire era, handing lawmakers a new child-safety tool that will be used to shape popular platforms, including social media and artificial intelligence.

[Alan Rozenshtein is an associate professor of law at the University of Minnesota Law School and a senior editor at Lawfare.]