IMDB is suing California’s Attorney General Kamala Harris in an effort to overturn a new law that requires the company’s IMDb Pro account users to remove the ages of actors on the site if asked by them to do so.
“This law unfairly targets IMDb.com (which appears to be the only public site impacted by the law) and forces IMDb to suppress factual information from public view,” IMDb argues in the lawsuit.
“Moreover, the factual information being suppressed from IMDb is available from many other sources, not least including Wikipedia, Google, Microsoft (Bing), and Apple (Siri). As such, AB 1687 sets a dangerous and unconstitutional precedent for other general purpose websites and news sources, and should be deeply troubling to all who care about free speech.”
In addition, IMDb argues that the new law is unconstitutional, calling it “a misguided law that attempts to combat age discrimination in casting through content-based censorship.”
The new law was praised by SAG-AFTRA as a major blow against ageism in the film industry.
