Big Tech sues over social media law + Shepard wants recount + Newsom remembers Sandy Hook
Good morning and welcome to the A.M. Alert!
TECH INDUSTRY GROUP SUES CALIFORNIA OVER SOCIAL MEDIA LAW
NetChoice, a coalition of Big Tech companies including Meta, TikTok, Google and Twitter, is suing the State of California, challenging AB 2273.
The bill and its companion, AB 2408, were crafted by Assemblymembers Buffy Wicks and Jordan Cunningham to hold social media companies accountable for addicting children. While AB 2408 was smothered in committee, AB 2273 — which prohibits social media companies from using children’s personal information — made it to Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk for signature and is set to go into effect July 1, 2024.
Companies will be liable for civil penalties of up to $2,500 per affected child for each negligent violation or up to $7,500 for each intentional offense.
The tech industry lobbied hard against both bills. NetChoice released a statement after AB 2273 became law saying that it violates the First Amendment and infringes on the editorial rights of social media companies.
“Today, we’re suing California to protect the First Amendment and privacy of families online,” said NetChoice Vice President and General Counsel Carl Szabo in a statement. Szabo framed the industry’s opposition by arguing that companies would be forced to determine whether users were children or adults.
“By abandoning the First Amendment and forcing all websites to track and store information on both children and adults, California risks closing the internet and putting the digital safety of all Americans, and especially children, in jeopardy.”
The lawsuit, Netchoice v. Bonta, contends that the law “is a content-based restriction on speech that will subject a global communications medium to state supervision and hobble a free and open resource for ‘exploring the vast realms of human thought and knowledge.’”
“Among its many infirmities, AB 2273 presses companies to serve as roving censors of speech on the internet. The law imposes on private firms, big and small, the obligation to identify and ‘mitigate’ speech that is ‘harmful or potentially harmful’ to users under 18 years old,and to ‘prioritize’ speech that promotes such users’ ‘well-being’ and ‘best interests,’” the lawsuit further contends.
The lawsuit seeks to have AB 2273 rendered invalid and to block its enforcement.
In response to the lawsuit, the California Attorney General’s Office released the following statement: “As children spend more of their time online, the California Age-Appropriate Design Code provides critical new protections over the collection and use of their data.”
SHEPARD REQUESTS RECOUNT IN SD-16
20 votes.
That’s what separates Sen. Melissa Hurtado, D-Sanger, from Republican challenger David Shepard in the race for Senate District 16.
Now that the race has been certified, Shepard is demanding a recount.
“Yesterday afternoon, we officially filed the necessary paperwork with the county elections offices in each of the four Senate District 16 counties needed to trigger a recount. Given some procedural irregularities that our campaign has observed, I believe that a recount is necessary. This is a historically close election and it is imperative that every legally cast vote be counted,” Shepard said in a statement Wednesday.
Last week, Senate Republican leaders urged their Democratic counterparts to hold off on seating either Hurtado or Shepard while the ensuing battle sorted itself out, warning that seating either candidate could result in legal action.
NEWSOM OBSERVES GRIM MILESTONE
Wednesday marked the 10th anniversary of the horrific shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School, and Gov. Newsom observed the occasion in a statement tying that tragedy to the hundreds that have occurred since.
“Sandy Hook shook our nation to its core, yet every day new tragedies play out in our schools, churches, workplaces and public spaces across the country — destroying countless lives and tearing at the soul of our nation,” Newsom said. “This has to stop. We cannot accept this as our reality and we cannot remain silent.”
Newsom used the occasion to vow to continue leading the charge to end the epidemic of gun violence in America.
The governor cited a rating from the Giffords Law Center which found California to be the top state in the nation for gun safety in 2021. He also mentioned data from Public Policy Institute of California which found Californians were 25% less likely to be killed in a mass shooting than were people in other states.
QUOTE OF THE DAY
“It’s pure comedy and tragedy to hear a Progressive governor who supports essentially no limits on immigration complain about the border crisis.”
- Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher, R-Yuba City, discussing Gov. Gavin Newsom’s recent visit to the border via Twitter.
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