California Proposes Tech-Regulating Legislation
Analysis by Cristiano Lima with research by David DiMolfetta, “California blazing ahead on tech regulation, again,” Washington Post, Sep 15, 2023.
Photo: Rich Pedroncelli/AP
California legislators this week passed a flurry of proposals to regulate the tech industry, including bills to rein in data brokers’ privacy practices and to allow consumers to tweak or fix their personal electronic devices, referred to as the “right to repair.”
The bills are yet another signal of the state’s aggressive moves to set its own tech regulations as policymakers in Washington struggle to pass any major laws.
The bills advanced ahead of the California legislature’s final day on Thursday, typically a dizzying year-end sprint, and could soon be signed into law by Gov. Gavin Newsom (D).
California, home to many Silicon Valley giants, has repeatedly sped past other states in setting new internet regulations, including its landmark 2018 privacy law and measures expanding protections for children online and creating new transparency requirements for platforms last year.
And state lawmakers have already signaled they will press to pass more sweeping tech measures when they return next year. Here’s a breakdown of the legislative frenzy:
Data broker limits
Both of the state’s chambers greenlit the Delete Act, which would create a hub where Californians could order hundreds of data brokers to delete and stop collecting their information. The bill, S.B. 362, builds on protections in the California Consumer Privacy Act.
Hayley Tsukayama, associate director of legislative activism at the Electronic Frontier Foundation digital privacy group, wrote in August that the bill “gives us all a much-needed method to exercise our privacy rights” and “helps us gain better control over our data.” (Tsukayama previously worked as a consumer technology reporter at The Washington Post.)
The ‘right to repair’
State lawmakers this week passed the Right to Repair Act, S.B. 244, which would require companies to give consumers the tools to independently fix their products.
While California is not the first state to pass such legislation, the move marks a major win for the “right to repair” movement, which for years has battled against giants like iPhone maker Apple. The company last month surprised advocates by embracing such a bill for the first time.
“The era of manufacturers’ repair monopolies is ending, as well it should be,” iFixit CEO Kyle Wiens, whose e-commerce site has advocated for “right to repair” bills, said Tuesday.
Liability over child abuse material
California’s State Assembly and Senate this week also passed A.B. 1394, which seeks to open tech companies up to liability if they knowingly “facilitate, aid, or abet” the spread of child abuse material, after failing to advance a separate measure to expose platforms to more lawsuits.
Tech industry groups have spoken out against the bill, which resembles the controversial federal sex trafficking law known as FOSTA-SESTA.
Jim Steyer, CEO of the children’s advocacy group Common Sense Media, called its passage “a hugely important step to help stamp out the insidious and deeply harmful problem of online child sex trafficking.”
AI, news bill on the horizon
State Sen. Scott Wiener (D), who has spearheaded net neutrality legislation in the state, this week unveiled a new bill to require safety testing for artificial intelligence tools. If taken up, the measure could put the state on another collision course with Washington, whose legislative leaders are increasingly showing interest in regulating the surging tools.
Assemblywoman Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland), who has led several major children’s safety proposals, teed up for consideration next year her bill to require tech platforms to pay news publishers for their content. Tech giant Meta has threatened to block news content in the state if the measure passes the law, which would mark the first time that has happened in the United States.
