Internet Freedom Weekly: News Recap, June 29th – July 3rd 2026

It has been a dense week for anyone paying attention: governments reach for broad technical restrictions, call them child safety, national security, or public order, and the costs land on ordinary users — their privacy, their anonymity, their access to a free and open internet.

Nebraska’s Age Verification Law Blocked by Federal Judge

A federal judge ruled that multiple components of Nebraska's LB 1074 (which would have required age verification on social media platforms) likely violate the First Amendment and blocked them from going into effect in July. The ruling is a preliminary injunction, meaning the law is paused while legal challenges proceed, but the court's language was clear: these provisions are probably unconstitutional. Courts across the US are increasingly pushing back on overbroad internet safety laws, and Nebraska is the latest example of why blunt age verification mandates don't survive First Amendment scrutiny.

Read the full article here.

Australia Doubles the Fine for Social Media Ban Breaches

Australia's under-16 social media ban has been in effect since December 2025, and the government's own eSafety Commission found that seven out of ten affected children still have "some access" to banned platforms. The response? Double the maximum penalty for non-compliant platforms to $99 million AUD and hand regulators new enforcement powers. Prime Minister Anthony Albanese framed this as "doubling down." I'd frame it as escalating the pressure on a policy that demonstrably isn't achieving what it set out to do — and hoping no one notices.

Read the full article here.

The Kids Act Cleared the House. Privacy Experts Are Warning Against It.

The House passed the Kids Internet and Digital Safety (KIDS) Act in a 267–117 vote, with bipartisan support. The bill would mandate age verification for pornography sites, new safety features on platforms, restrictions on minors' data, and new rules for AI chatbots. The Electronic Frontier Foundation called it "a mess, with different age-gating schemes for different services, using different standards," warning that platforms will simply default to restrictive age-checking across their entire user base. Trade groups and free speech advocates raised similar concerns.

Read the full article here.

EFF Urges Illinois Governor to Veto Sweeping Age-Gating Bill

The Illinois legislature passed House Bill 5511, a device-level age-gating framework that would apply across nearly all internet-enabled hardware, operating systems, and online services in the state. The Electronic Frontier Foundation formally urged Governor J.B. Pritzker to veto it, calling it a "massive privacy and free speech nightmare." The bill closely mirrors California's A.B. 1043 and New York's SAFE for Kids Act, neither of which has gone into effect or been tested in court.

Read the full article here.

Iowa’s Age Verification Law for Adult Content Is Now Live

Iowa's House File 864 took effect in July 2026, requiring adult websites to verify users' ages before granting access. Major platforms — Pornhub, Redtube, YouPorn, Brazzers — chose to block Iowa users entirely rather than collect government ID. Platforms that do comply require identity documents run through third-party verification systems. Every adult in Iowa who wants to access legal content now has to either submit their most sensitive identifying documents to a private company or find that the platform has blocked them completely. The teenagers this law was meant to stop have other options. The adults absorbing the privacy cost largely don't.

Read the full article here.

Turkey Blocked Pride Accounts During Pride Month

Turkish courts issued orders blocking access (within Turkey) to the Instagram accounts of Kaos GL, one of the country's oldest LGBTQ+ rights groups, along with Istanbul Pride Week, Istanbul Trans Pride Week, Ankara Pride, and Izmir Pride. The accounts remain accessible from outside Turkey. During the same week, Istanbul's Tek Yön (a gay nightclub that operated legally for 18 years) was shut down after pro-government media amplified a social media post inviting cruise passengers to visit. Kaos GL's editor-in-chief has been in jail since June 25th, detained under a "terror" probe launched ahead of the NATO summit in Ankara. Online censorship that targets one community is a warning for everyone.

Read the full article here.

Pegasus Was Used Against the MEP Investigating It

Researchers at Citizen Lab found that Pegasus spyware (made by NSO Group and sold to governments for the stated purpose of fighting serious crime) was used against Greek MEP Stelios Kouloglou while he was serving on the European Parliament's Pega committee, which was established specifically to investigate spyware abuses. His device was first infected during an intense period of the committee's deliberations in October 2022, and hacked again while the committee was finalizing its report in March 2023. This is the first confirmed instance of a Pega committee member being targeted. Citizen Lab's senior researcher noted that the committee's recommendations have "essentially been ignored."

Read the full article here.

The EU May Announce a Social Media Ban in September

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen is expected to use her State of the Union address on September 16th to propose an EU-wide social media age restriction for children, according to multiple EU officials and diplomats who spoke to Euractiv. The minimum age, enforcement mechanism, and legal framework are all still undecided. Von der Leyen has repeatedly cited Australia's under-16 ban as a model, which is worth noting, given that Australia's own data shows the ban isn't keeping most children off the platforms it targets. If the EU adopts a framework in September, it will set regulatory expectations that ripple outward well beyond Europe's borders.

Read the full article here.