PHOENIX — Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs vetoed the state's age verification bill on Monday, stating that legislation to protect the online safety of minors should be a bipartisan effort that does not conflict with the First Amendment.
Free Speech Coalition (FSC) released a statement praising Hobbs for vetoing HB 2586:
This afternoon, Arizona Governor Katie Hobbs vetoed HB 2586, a bill that would have mandated invasive age verification for visitors to sites with “material harmful to minors.” We completely agree with Governor Hobbs that legislation to protect children’s online safety “should be bipartisan and work within the bounds of the First Amendment, which this bill does not.”
FSC led opposition to the bill, and traveled to Arizona multiple times to speak with legislators, journalists, allies and constituents. HB 2586 ultimately passed the legislature on a party-line vote, and opposition to the bill came from the ACLU, FIRE, Chamber of Progress, Woodhull Freedom Foundation, SIECUS, ESPLERP and a host of other organizations dedicated to civil liberties, reproductive rights, sex worker rights and LGBTQ+ rights. They understand, as we do, that these bills endanger not only adult content, but wide swaths of speech online.
We thank Governor Hobbs for her courage in standing up to calls for censorship, and look forward to working with the legislature on effective methods of keeping minors from accessing age-inappropriate material online.
To read Hobbs’ veto letter, click here.