States Push for Social Media Age Restrictions & Australian Police Seize Anti-Fascist Posters from Bar | The Free Flow 2/26/26
Germany launches nationwide raids over online hate speech, a Greek bill seeks to ban social media for minors under 15, Australian Police Seize anti-facist posters from a local bar, and more.
This Week at a Glance 🔎
—🇺🇲 DHS Sued for Surveillance of Legal Observers
—🇩🇪 Germany Launches Nationwide Raids Over Online Hate Speech
—🇦🇺 Australia Police Seize Anti-Facist Posters from Canberra Bar
—🇬🇷 Greek Bill Would Ban Social Media for Minors Under 15
—🇷🇺 Russia Moves to Ban Telegram, Floats Terrorism Investigation
First of All 🇺🇲
» Lawsuit Accuses DHS of Using Surveillance Tech to Track Legal Observers
A class action lawsuit filed in a Maine federal court accuses the Department of Homeland Security and Secretary Kristi Noem of violating the First Amendment by using surveillance technology to chill constitutionally protected monitoring and recording of government activity.
Background:
The complaint alleges that DHS officers scanned the faces and license plates of legal observers during Immigration and Customs Enforcement operations in Portland, ME, on January 21 and January 23.
The plaintiffs — Colleen Fagan and Elinor Hilton — claim officers threatened to place them on a “domestic terrorist watchlist” and warned they would come to their homes.
The lawsuit seeks an injunction barring DHS from using facial recognition and license plate readers to target legal observers.
DHS has denied maintaining a “domestic terrorist” database but acknowledged monitoring incidents involving “threats, assaults and obstruction” of its officers.
The complaint references similar reports in other states, where legal observers allege ICE agents appeared at their homes after scanning their faces or vehicles.
DHS’s inspector general is reportedly investigating ICE’s use of facial recognition and personal data following lawmakers’ concerns about its deployment against legal observers.
The Digital Age
» Russia Moves Closer to Banning Telegram, Floats Terrorism Probe of Founder
Russia appears to be laying the groundwork for a potential ban of Telegram, escalating pressure on the messaging platform by signaling a terrorism-related investigation into its founder, Pavel Durov.
Background:
Two Russian newspapers reported that the Federal Security Service (F.S.B.) is investigating Durov for allegedly aiding and abetting terrorism. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitri S. Peskov confirmed that F.S.B. research informed the reports.
The move follows increased throttling of Telegram (as reported in a previous Free Flow), with Russian authorities accusing the platform of failing to prevent its use by terrorists and criminals.
Russian state media claim Telegram has become a key tool for Ukraine and NATO intelligence services and accuse it of facilitating attacks and unrest inside Russia.
What’s at Stake:
Telegram has become a cornerstone of online expression in Russia, with more than 100 million monthly users relying on the app for news, commentary, and battlefield communication.
Since the invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Kremlin has steadily tightened control over the digital sphere—blocking Facebook and Instagram, restricting YouTube, and pressuring platforms to comply with state censorship demands.
Authorities are reportedly pushing users toward a Kremlin-approved “super app,” MAX, which lacks Telegram’s encryption protections.
» California Gov. Newsom Backs Social Media Age Restrictions
In the context of a nationwide push to regulate minors’ access to social media, California Gov. Gavin Newsom has endorsed state legislation requiring social media companies to implement age-verification procedures to prevent teens from creating accounts.
A Growing Pattern:
While efforts to limit kids’ access to social media have primarily been led in red states, Newsom’s endorsement signals early signs of bipartisan momentum.
Florida has already passed legislation prohibiting social media accounts for children under 14, while efforts to implement similar restrictions in Utah have been temporarily blocked, and attempts in Texas and Alabama were halted.
Laws that require mobile app stores and developers to verify users’ ages and obtain parental consent for each purchase have passed in Texas, Utah, Louisiana, and Alabama, while a similar bill, the App Store Accountability Act, cleared a House subcommittee in December.
The upswing in state action comes as Congress considers federal proposals, including the Kids Off Social Media Act, which would ban social media for kids under 13.
Countries like Australia, Canada, France, and Malaysia have already enacted, proposed, or are considering similar legislation.
» Virginia to Begin Enforcing 1-Hour Limit to Minors’ Use of Social Media
Virginia Attorney General Jay Jones announced that the state will begin enforcing a law requiring social media companies to limit minors’ use to an hour a day this week.
Details:
The law requires companies like TikTok, Instagram, and Snapchat to set a default time limit of 1 hour for users under 16, unless a parent consents to a longer or shorter time limit.
Companies found in violation of the limit will be notified and have 30 days to comply or face up to $7,500 in civil penalties for each violation.
It was set to take effect on January 1 but was delayed due to an ongoing lawsuit brought by NetChoice, a trade association representing social media and tech companies.
Jones said his office will start enforcing the legislation as the case proceeds, and has filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit.
» Colorado Lawmakers Push for Age-Verification in OS Systems
Colorado lawmakers have introduced SB26-051, a bill that would require operating systems, such as Apple’s iOS and Google’s Android, to verify device owners’ age, allowing third-party apps to access that information to determine whether a user is an adult.
Details:
The legislation would mandate that operating systems use device owners’ birthdates or ages to sort them into age brackets that can be shared with app developers.
If app developers have “clear and convincing information that a user’s age is different than the age indicated by an age signal,” they are required to adhere to the primary indicator or face penalties of up to $2,500 for each negligent violation, and up to $7,500 for violations found to be intentional.
The bill would remove pressure to mandate age-verification mechanisms in apps and centralize age-checking through the OS.
The proposed law mirrors California’s AB 1043 bill, which is set to take effect next January.
The Brussels Effect: Europe and Beyond 🇪🇺
» Germany Launches Nationwide Raids Over Online Hate Speech
On February 25, German authorities carried out a coordinated nationwide crackdown on alleged illegal online speech, including searches and device seizures tied to social media posts.
Details:
For example, prosecutors in Kiel are investigating a 46-year-old man from Rendsburg-Eckernförde for allegedly posting a xenophobic and violent comment in response to a video of the May 2024 Mannheim knife attack, in which a police officer was fatally injured. Authorities seized his mobile phone pursuant to a court-approved search warrant.
The investigation was part of a nationwide “day of action” against hate postings, coordinated by Germany’s Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA).
Law enforcement authorities across all 16 federal states reportedly acted on approximately 140 investigations.
According to the BKA, more than half of the cases fall under the category of right-wing politically motivated crime (PMK), with others involving left-wing, religious, foreign ideological, or other political motivations.
Underlying charges include “incitement to hatred,” “use of symbols of unconstitutional or terrorist organizations,” “rewarding and condoning criminal offenses,” and “insult.”
In some cases, suspects were summoned for questioning; in others, police conducted home searches and seized smartphones and digital evidence.
German authorities explicitly stated that one goal of the operation was to “sensitize” suspects—some repeat offenders—to the fact that “crimes on the Internet also have real consequences.”
» UK Fines Reddit $19.5M Over Age-Verification Failures
The UK’s information regulator, the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO), has fined Reddit, a social platform, £14.47M (19.5M USD) over allegations that it “failed to apply any robust age assurance mechanism,” making their use of children’s data unlawful.
Context: The UK’s Online Safety Act requires platforms that host potentially harmful content deploy effective age-verification processes to prevent minors’ access.
Age-Verification on Reddit:
Reddit prohibits children under 13 from opening an account, which was enforced by users self-declaring their age.
The ICO said that relying primarily on users’ self-declaration as a form of age verification “presents risks to children as it is easy to bypass,” and that it will face “further regulatory scrutiny.”
The Fine:
The ICO alleged that, because Reddit’s age-verification systems were not rigorous enough, it was unlawfully processing the data of children under 13, “potentially exposing them to inappropriate and harmful content.”
UK Information Commissioner John Edwards said that “Children under 13 had their personal information collected and used in ways they could not understand, consent to, or control,” which led to the fine.
Reddit said it will appeal the fine, and that the ICO’s insistence that it collect more private information beyond its current measures on UK users is “counterintuitive” and contradicts the company’s commitment to user privacy.
After the Fine:
After the fine, the platform began using Persona, an age-verification system that relies on users’ uploaded selfies or government IDs, to verify UK users seeking access to restricted content.
The third-party age-verification system sparked privacy concerns among users of another social platform, Discord, after they discovered that its privacy policy states it may obtain users’ personal data from government records.
Questions have also been raised about the effectiveness of age-verification technology itself, and NIST’s Face Analysis Technology Evaluation found that even leading facial age-estimation algorithms have a mean absolute error of 1.88 to 2.7 years for people aged 13 to 24.
» Greece Moves to Ban Social Media for Under-15s
The Greek government is preparing legislation that would ban children under 15 from accessing social media, relying on an existing age-verification app known as “Kids Wallet.”
Background:
The system would use “Kids Wallet,” a parental-control app already deployed to prevent minors from purchasing tobacco and alcohol.
Social media platforms would be required to integrate the app, which generates a barcode verifying age eligibility, into their registration process.
The proposal is being coordinated by three ministries — Justice, Digital Governance, and Health — under the direct oversight of Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis.
The proposal has been delayed until early March, but Mitsotakis has indicated an announcement is imminent.
At the AI Summit in India on February 19, Mitsotakis endorsed growing momentum among EU countries to restrict minors’ access to social media, calling protection from online harms and “digital addiction” a “top priority.”
Free Speech Recession 🌍
» U.S. Guts Funding for Global Internet Freedom Program
The Trump administration’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) has largely gutted funding for Internet Freedom, a program managed by the State Department and the Agency for Global Media that, for nearly two decades, has supported grassroots technologies to evade internet controls imposed by oppressive governments worldwide.
Details:
The program seeks to support small groups abroad developing advanced circumvention technologies that can operate even under powerful censorship regimes.
The technologies have allowed communication in Iran during recent anti-government protests and internet shutdowns, and provide groups in states with stringent surveillance and censorship regimes, such as Myanmar and China, access to the worldwide web.
Over the past year, however, Internet Freedom’s main granting office issued no funds to these small groups in 2025 amid downsizing and program closures.
The Open Technology Fund, a nonprofit that collaborates with the government to direct half of Internet Freedom’s funding to these groups, won a lawsuit in December to restore the program’s funds, though the administration is currently appealing the ruling.
The substantial cuts come as censorship technology becomes cheaper and more accessible, making it easier to build “digital iron curtains.”
» Former Canadian School Trustee Fined $548K for Hate Speech
Barry Neufeld, a former school trustee for the city of Chilliwack, has been ordered by the British Columbia (B.C.) Human Rights Tribunal to pay $750,000 CAD ($548 USD) to local teachers’ association members who identify as LGBTQ+ for publishing anti-LGBTQ+ content.
Details:
Neufeld previously served as a school trustee, an elected official who represents community interests in the public education system, for more than 10 years.
He criticized a 2017 decision by the B.C. government that directed school boards to update codes of conduct to address bullying based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
The tribunal found six of his publications, including Facebook posts, a speech at a gathering, a widely-circulated email, and comments at a school board meeting and in the media, threatened the security of LGBTQ+ children and families.
“Mr. Neufeld invoked negative and insidious stereotypes about LGBTQ people, especially trans people, which denied their inherent dignity and, in some cases, reflected the hallmarks of hate against them as a group,” the tribunal said in its decision.
It noted the purpose of the hefty award was to compensate for the harms of discrimination, and added that although in some cases mandatory training is a sufficient remedy, “given Mr. Neufeld’s clearly entrenched views,” they are not persuaded that such a remedy would be beneficial.
The tribunal issued a second decision ordering Neufeld to pay another $10,000 in punitive costs for improper conduct, including “flagrant disregard for the Human Rights Tribunal and its process,” during the complaint.
» Australian Police Seize Anti-Fascist Posters from Canberra Bar
Police in Australia’s capital seized protest art posters depicting world leaders in Nazi uniforms, briefly shutting down a local venue while investigating whether the display violated new federal hate symbol laws.
Background:
On February 19, officers from the Australian Capital Territory (ACT) Policing declared Dissent Cafe and Bar in Canberra a crime scene after receiving a complaint about five posters displayed in the venue’s window.
The posters — created by protest collective Grow Up Art — portrayed figures including U.S. President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, and Elon Musk in Nazi uniforms.
Authorities seized the posters to determine whether charges would be laid under federal hate symbol legislation passed earlier this year in the wake of the Bondi stabbing attack.
Venue owner David Howe described the works as “an anti-fascist statement” and said he would have complied had officers explicitly requested he remove them.
Less than 24 hours later, the posters were returned and reinstalled — this time overlaid with the word “CENSORED” in red.
After a week, Howe received notice that he would face no charges over the incident, though he said he received “no assurance” from the police that similar incidents would not occur in the future.
Ashley Haek is a communications coordinator and research assistant at The Future of Free Speech.
Justin Hayes is the Director of Communications at The Future of Free Speech and the Managing Editor of The Bedrock Principle.
Abigail Pope is a communications intern at The Future of Free Speech and a student at Vanderbilt University studying economics.