🚨NEW LAWSUIT: NetChoice Sues Illinois Over Unconstitutional Social Media User Tax and Digital Ad Tax SPRINGFIELD, Ill. — NetChoice today filed two complaints against the State of Illinois to block enforcement of two newly enacted tax provisions, the Social Media User Tax and the Digital Ad Tax. Both measures unconstitutionally and discriminatorily single out digital services, in direct violation of the First Amendment and the federal Permanent Internet Tax Freedom Act (PITFA). "Illinois’ new internet taxes firmly establish the state’s opposition to online speech, innovation, and its own business community,” said @Paul_Taske, Director of the NetChoice Litigation Center. “The Supreme Court has made abundantly clear that legislators cannot target a subset of media for disfavored taxation, but that’s precisely what these taxes do. Not only are they flatly unconstitutional under the First Amendment, but they blatantly disregard Congress’s clear judgment under PITFA that digital services cannot be subject to discriminatory taxation.” A Tax on Audience Size Is a Tax on Speech The Social Media User Tax imposes fees on platforms based on the number of Illinois users they reach, exempting services with fewer than 100,000 users while penalizing those with larger audiences. The U.S. Supreme Court has made clear that the government may not tax one category of speaker more heavily than another. Illinois' Social Media User Tax follows the same blueprint NetChoice is already challenging in NetChoice v. Chicago, a pending suit over the city's own per-user Social Media Amusement Tax. Both Taxes Run Afoul of Federal Law Both the Social Media User Tax and the Digital Ad Tax are in direct violation of PITFA, the federal law by which Congress expressly barred states from imposing "discriminatory taxes on electronic commerce." Both taxes apply exclusively to online services while leaving comparable offline counterparts — social clubs, community centers, professional associations, and traditional advertising — untouched. This is precisely the sort of digital-only taxation Congress intended to preempt, and similar laws, including Maryland's Digital Advertising Tax, have already been struck down by courts on comparable grounds. Real Costs for Illinoisans and Their Small Businesses Because the Social Media User Tax is a flat fee untethered to a company's actual revenue or profit in Illinois, some services may choose to limit or exit the Illinois market altogether — cutting residents off from vital communication, educational, and community-organizing tools they rely on daily. Local businesses, including restaurants, auto dealers, and community organizations, will also face higher costs to reach customers through online ads under the new Digital Ad Tax. This tax raises the cost of doing business, costs that are likely to be passed on to Illinois consumers, and harms entrepreneurs’ ability to grow.

466 million people worldwide live with disabling hearing loss. AI is helping to put real-time captioning, adaptive hearing aids, and sign-language translation directly into people's pockets, on demand. Learn more below ⏬️ buff.ly/Uifn7vv

430+ cybersecurity experts have warned that mandating digital IDs to access lawful speech online "breaks the internet's security model." NetChoice's Digital Safety Shield takes a different path: fund law enforcement, expand digital literacy, empower parents.

Starkey's AI-powered hearing aids now make 80 million processing adjustments an hour to isolate speech from background noise, improving understanding by 30%. AI captioning glasses & real-time sign language translation are closing access gaps that certified interpreters alone can't scale to meet. buff.ly/Uifn7vv

A federal court already ruled that mandating warning labels on social media is unconstitutional compelled speech. Now a New Mexico court has ordered nearly the same thing through a $1 billion lawsuit instead of a law. Learn more below ⏬️ buff.ly/hHQEyIa

20 GW of new data center capacity has generated nearly 2 million truckloads of freight since 2023 — one reason the Dow Jones Trucking Index is up 30% this year after two straight years of decline. Data center moratoriums aren't just slowing down tech; they're going to cut off a lifeline for an industry that has spent years struggling. buff.ly/D0epMIm

NEW MYTH, BUSTED: Big does NOT automatically mean bad. Big usually just means successful at serving customers. The real danger is a company that stops innovating. Just ask Sears.👇

Kalshi Joins NetChoice as Coalition Expands Into New Sectors of the Digital Economy WASHINGTON — Kalshi, the federally regulated financial exchange, has joined NetChoice, a national technology trade association focused on promoting free enterprise, free expression, and innovation across America’s digital economy. Together, Kalshi and NetChoice will work to champion an environment where prediction markets can thrive as a part of the digital ecosystem. “America has always been at its best when entrepreneurs have the freedom to innovate and consumers have the freedom to choose,” said @Kalshi CEO @mansourtarek_. “That’s why we’re proud to partner with NetChoice to protect those principles and ensure Americans can participate in the next generation of financial markets.” “We are excited to welcome Kalshi as a member as we expand into new sectors of the digital economy," said @SteveDelBianco, President and CEO of NetChoice. “NetChoice works to make the internet safe for free enterprise and free expression — prediction markets sit at the intersection of both. We look forward to working together to defend the freedom to innovate and compete.” NetChoice represents companies across the technology sector to ensure that the principles that enabled America’s internet economy to flourish continue to extend to its newest participants. The organization educates policymakers at the federal, state, and local levels about the digital economy and advocates for a policy and legal environment that protects the rights of consumers, promotes competition, and allows innovators to thrive. Unlike a sportsbook, where the house sets the odds and profits when customers lose, Kalshi is a peer-to-peer exchange where users trade directly with one another on the outcomes of future events. Prices are set by the market, not the platform, giving consumers a transparent alternative built on the same principles as any other financial exchange. Kalshi is leading a new era of markets that are open, accessible, and driven by the people who use them.

The AI buildout has started putting real freight on the roads and real money back into the pockets of American truckers. 👏 Read more below ⏬

A data center on U.S. soil operates under the Constitution. Due process, real IP protection, courts that answer to the law. In China, the state can seize private data & mandate software backdoors under national security law. The physical location of the AI stack is a question of whose rules AI will run on. 🇺🇸 buff.ly/XlCbuQk

I'm personally and professionally extremely grateful for Lisa Nelson's leadership of ALEC for the last 12 years. @Lisabnelson , you will be missed, and can't wait to see what's next on your bucket list. alec.org/article/agratefulfa…

NEW video series alert! 🚨 Follow along to learn more from @pat_hedger as he debunks common antitrust myths.

This week is the International Week of the Deaf. AI is helping to expand access for deaf & hard-of-hearing people by putting real-time communication support in everyone’s pocket, on their face, & in their ears — on demand, at a fraction of the historical cost. Learn more below ⏬

Prime Day used to be an Amazon-only promotion. This year, Walmart and Target launched competing sales timed to overlap with it, and both saw a bump in in-store foot traffic during the event. Competition turned the four days into $26.4 billion. 🛍️ buff.ly/4Vh9IPf

Amazon and Prime saved American families over $1,000 per customer last year, from everyday prices averaging 14% below major retailers to $650+ in delivery & fuel savings for Prime members alone. This is what competition & scale can deliver for consumers. 👏 Read more below ⏬️ buff.ly/814CpcB

56% of students now say they'll know how to use AI in daily life after graduating, up from 44% just last year. That confidence isn't an accident. Schools are moving past the "just ban it" instinct and toward teaching kids to use the technology well. 👏 buff.ly/oke29MP

Don't miss NetChoice's @corbinkbarthold on the Hill tomorrow with @NetCaucusAC discussing all things AI and speech. ⚖️ Register here ➡️ buff.ly/fE6hdxy

A DOE-commissioned study found the real drivers of rising electric bills: storm-related grid hardening, an aging network of poles and wires, and renewable mandates that force utilities to buy expensive backup power. 📈 Data centers aren't on that list. buff.ly/akqpg26