RECENT UPDATES ON THE BAD INTERNET CALIFORNIA BILLS:
Sadly, both AB1949 and SB976 passed and are now on their way to the governors desk.
We need him to veto them so they dont become Law.
If you havent Heard of the danger of those bills for the Internet , this post explain it thoroughly :
- Post doing a deep explanation on those bills here
I CANNOT emphasize enough how these would have a global effect on the Internet given that most websites and apps originates from California and not all of them could afford either following those bills or moving states.
Now, as the bills are on their way to the governor, we need Californian citizens to voice their oppositions to those bills to the Governor Gavin Newsome HERE
(Non California peeps, we are urging you to share this as well!!! )
Please keep in mind that calling with phone is much,much more efficient.
You can also send faxes with Faxzero
Here are scripts you can use as arguments : (text/alt version below the read more )
Than you for reading. Even if youre not from California, please spread the word anyway ! Make posts,tweets,etc
REBLOGS ENCOURAGED
TEXT VERSION :
AB 1949
Hello, my name is (INSERT NAME HERE) and I'm one of the Senator's constituents from (INSERT CITY HERE). I'm calling to urge the Senator to vote NO on AB 1949, the amendment to the California Consumer Privacy Act of 2020. While this bill's intent is to prevent the sharing and sale of minor's information under the age of 18, the method it would intend to do so by is written far too broadly for it to be safely and reasonably implemented.
While this bill retains a safer standard of the business requiring actual knowledge of a consumer being under the age of 18 to be held liable for the sharing or sale of personal information, its wording is still too broad to exclude a default usage of age verification by online businesses in order to protect themselves from liability. Taking measures such as age verification, age assurance, or other data collection and analysis to determine the age of users. Even though measures like this have been proven to be vulnerable to data breaches no matter how secure they proclaim to be. Such as this year's largest discovered breach of AU10TIX, which supplies age verification to companies like TikTok, X, Uber, LinkedIn, Paypal, and many others.
As it stands, this bill is far too broad in its wording and enforcement of its age-specific measures to be considered a safe piece of legislation. Which is why I urge the Senator to vote in opposition to this measure.
Vote NO on AB 1949.
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SB 976
Hello, my name is (INSERT NAME HERE) and I'm one of the Assembly member's constituents from (INSERT CITY HERE). I'm calling to urge the Assembly member to vote NO on SB 976, the Protecting Our Kids from Social Media Addiction Act. Although this bill has intent to protect the mental and emotional health of California's youth, the method this bill would intend to use could be counterproductive to that goal, or even endanger them further.
One of this bill's primary measures includes requiring verifiable parental consent to allow websites to display “addictive” feeds to minor users. However, the ways “verify” the identity and age of a responsible parent are often invasive and dangerous. Especially since these methods have proven repeatedly to be vulnerable to data breaches that can leak sensitive information to bad actors. Such as this year's largest discovered breach of AU10TIX, which supplies age verification to companies like TikTok, X, Uber, LinkedIn, Paypal, and many others. To determine if this is necessary at all would also require collecting even more data on minors and non-minors alike to determine who would even require these measures to be set in place. Especially when it would have control over someone's access to a website or application based on the time of day, as this bill would require in order to “reasonably determine” the user is not a minor.
The vagueness of this bill's text at all is dangerous as well. The broad-spectrum definition it gives of “addictive internet-based service or application” could cause an unintended censorship effect where minors and adults alike could be blocked from accessing information purely because some part of a website or application uses a “feed” which could arguably fit the bill's definition of “addictive”
With all of this in mind, I urge the Assembly member to vote in opposition of this measure to protect the privacy and safety of California's minors and adults alike.
2 bad Californian bills, AB1949 and SB976, are pushing for age verification online
It is worrying, as those bills could have a global effect on the Internet given how many sites, apps,social medias are from California. VPNs wont help in this case.
You can read the text for the bill here https://legiscan.com/CA/text/AB1949/2023
AB1949 doesn't explicitly ask for ID verification anymore, as it used to, due to a revision, but there is a provision stating if they deem a website "willfully disregards" the age of the user they will be deemed to have actual knowledge of the user's age.
As for SB976, it aims to "keep kids off social medias and addictive feeds" but the way this bill is worded imply that an ID verificaiton would be required. it would also make it unalwful for an app or website to send notification to users who are minors past a certain hour of the day.
This broad part could be left to abuse, which is why it needs to be revised before passing, in order to confirm ID verification is not required.
If you live in California,please take the time to find your reps and tell them to vote no on those bills.
You can voice your opposition to AB1949 here
https://sapro.senate.ca.gov/members
Voice your opposition to SB976
https://apro.assembly.ca.gov/members
Don't forget, it could be useful to contact governor Gavin Newsom's people here to explain why thsoe bills would be terrible for the economy of California (as they seem to focus on this aspect a lot) and obviously how this would endanger kids and people's privacy/safety.
https://www.gov.ca.gov/contact/
You can also send faxes with https://faxzero.com/
If you don't live in California, please encourage people to spread the word , and make posts about thse bills using the tags #AB1949 and #SB976,the concerns you can express over these bills can be read above
