California Governor Jerry Brown signed a law allowing actors to remove their ages from the database of the film and TV app IMDb. The law was passed to help prevent age-based discrimination in the entertainment industry but has been criticized as censorship. (Variety, September 24, 2016, by Dave McNary)
Legal experts doubt the law will survive challenge given as one First Amendment lawyer said that it implicates the government in banning factual information. A film employee union insists that the law was necessary to protect actors, most lesser known, who claim they have seen their careers plummet when their age was published. Jonathan Handel, The Hollywood Reporter, September 27, 2016, writes, “…whether the statute is Constitutional probably turns on whether the expressive activity — publishing birth dates — is considered commercial speech and, if so, whether the lesser protection afforded such speech leaves IMDb’s sites subject to regulation.”