California’s Senate Judiciary Committee on Tuesday passed legislation that would ban companies from using children’s personal data to train AI systems without parental consent. The committee unanimously advanced AB-2877, and it’s now up for Senate Appropriations Committee consideration. Introduced by Assemblymember Rebecca Bauer-Kahan (D), the bill passed the California Assembly 73-0 in May. The legislation expands privacy protections under the California Consumer Privacy Act to include machine-learning technology. Bauer-Kahan told the committee the expansion is necessary because California passed its privacy law before the widespread use of AI. AB-2877 would require parental consent for children under 13 and teen consent for users aged 13-15. TechNet and the California Chamber of Commerce oppose the legislation. Chamber Policy Advocate Ronak Daylami said the bill is rooted in the assumption that it’s inherently harmful to use a teen’s personal information to train AI. Legislators should focus on a technology’s outputs instead of regulating and interfering with inputs, she said. Sen. Benjamin Allen (D) briefly noted the bill's potential for pushing companies out of California but conceded he hadn’t fully studied the measure. California’s current budget crisis has “made me acutely aware of how dependent we are on the tech industry to pay for all the programs we like,” Allen said. The legislation doesn’t impede businesses' ability to operate in the state, said Bauer-Kahan, noting a desire from Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) for the state to lead in AI technology (see 2405300064). Brokers are making a lot of money selling Californians’ data, and the state should clarify that it’s not allowed with kids unless there’s parental consent, she said.
The California Public Utilities Commission on Thursday denied AT&T relief from carrier of last resort obligations, while opening a rulemaking to take a fresh look at COLR rules. Also at its meeting, the CPUC approved broadband grants, acted on enforcement items and set annual budgets for the California Advanced Service Fund (CASF) and state video franchise law.
Sinclair Broadcast will sell anything in its portfolio -- at “the right price” -- so it can close the gap between its valuation and share price, CEO Chris Ripley told The Media Institute during a luncheon Tuesday. Ripley also predicted that generative AI eventually will create most media, and said asymmetric regulation and increased competition are broadcasting’s biggest obstacles. “Unfortunately, for our industry, we can't seem to get out from underneath some of these old regulations,” Ripley said. “There really isn't any reason for that to be, besides that's the way it always was.”
The possible end of the federal affordable connectivity program (ACP) isn't an excuse to make sweeping changes to state broadband grant rules, ISPs told the California Public Utilities Commission this week. In Monday comments (docket R.20-08-021), AT&T, Frontier Communications, cable companies and small rural local exchange carriers urged the CPUC to swiftly reject last month’s The Utility Reform Network (TURN) petition to modify rules for the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) broadband infrastructure account (see 2404150062).
The Vermont legislature passed bills on privacy and kids’ online safety Friday. After back-and-forth on amendments, the House and Senate agreed to a comprehensive data privacy bill (H-121). While final text wasn’t available Monday, “reports indicate that it has a narrow private right of action focused on data brokers and larger data holders and limited to the bill’s sensitive data and consumer health data provisions,” Husch Blackwell attorney David Stauss blogged. That might be a first among states (see 2403220040). The legislature also agreed to an age-appropriate design code bill (S-289) like the California law. Pouncing immediately, tech industry group NetChoice urged Vermont Gov. Phil Scott (R) to veto S-289. The bill “would chill lawful speech online and negatively impact Vermont’s vibrant small business community,” wrote NetChoice General Counsel Carl Szabo: “Similar requirements … have already been challenged and are currently enjoined.” Design It For Us, a youth advocacy group that originally campaigned to pass California’s kids code law, applauds the legislature “for working to protect young people from online harms and passing much needed Kids Code legislation despite industry efforts to defeat it,” said co-Chair Zamaan Qureshi in a statement. Accountable Tech, another supporter of such laws, also lauded passage of S-289. “It’s clear that momentum is on the side of young people fighting for safer online spaces as Vermont becomes the third state to pass age-appropriate design code legislation with the Vermont Kids Code,” said Executive Director Nicole Gill.
Sinclair CEO Chris Ripley signaled that his company is open to selling “assets” amid rumors that it's eyeing divesting 60 stations. Meanwhile, Nexstar CEO Perry Sook said broadcasters can’t have confidence about transactions in the current regulatory environment. The CEOs spoke during their respective Q1 earnings calls last week. Ripley, Sook and executives from Gray and E.W. Scripps also discussed progress on ATSC 3.0, a backloaded political advertising market, and streaming during earnings calls.
TikTok will challenge the newly approved “unconstitutional” law forcing ByteDance to sell the platform, it said in a statement Wednesday as President Joe Biden signed the measure.
Legislation forcing ByteDance to divest TikTok or face a U.S. ban will “trample” the rights of 170 million users, TikTok said in a statement. The House on Saturday approved a package of foreign aid bills, including the divestment legislation and a bill that would ban data brokers from transferring sensitive data of American users to adversarial foreign nations like China. The Protecting Americans’ Data from Foreign Adversaries Act (HR-7520) and the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act (HR-7521) were attached to the 21st Century Peace Through Strength Act, which the House passed 360-58. TikTok said Monday: "It is unfortunate that the House of Representatives is using the cover of important foreign and humanitarian assistance to once again jam through a ban bill that would trample the free speech rights of 170 million Americans, devastate 7 million businesses, and shutter a platform that contributes $24 billion to the U.S. economy, annually." The foreign aid package will “bolster security and stability in the Indo-Pacific,” President Joe Biden said in a statement Saturday, urging the Senate to send it “quickly” to his desk. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Democrats and Republicans “locked in an agreement enabling the Senate to finish work on the supplemental with the first vote on Tuesday afternoon.” The Senate is on a path to pass the “same bill soon,” he added. House Commerce Committee Chair Cathy McMorris Rodgers, R-Wash., and ranking member Frank Pallone, D-N.J., welcomed the inclusion of HR-7520 and HR-7521: The House vote “is a clear victory for protecting Americans online and off.” Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., said he’s “very glad to see progress toward compelling a divestiture of TikTok from its parent company, Byte Dance, which is legally beholden to the Chinese Communist Party. This is a strong step forward to shore up our national security against malign influence, and it couldn’t come at a more important time.”
The Senate plans to vote Thursday on reauthorization of the Foreign Surveillance Intelligence Act, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., said Wednesday (see 2404120044). The upper chamber “must come to an agreement” before Friday’s deadline for reauthorization, said Schumer: “Otherwise, this very important tool for ensuring our national security is going to lapse, and that would be unacceptable.” The House hasn’t made the Senate’s job “any easier” with its “bogus impeachment trial,” but FISA needs to be extended, he said. The Senate on Wednesday rejected articles of impeachment against Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, D-Va., spoke on the floor Wednesday and urged lawmakers to renew Section 702 of FISA. About 60% of items in the president’s daily intelligence brief are sourced from information gathered using Section 702, he said. Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., on Tuesday asked colleagues to reject the House proposal, saying it “gives the government unchecked authority to order millions of Americans to spy on behalf of the government.” He argued the proposal expands Section 702, citing bill language saying the government can compel information from any “service provider who has access to equipment that is being or may be used to transmit or store wire or electronic communications.” The House was scheduled to vote at 5 p.m. Wednesday on the Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act. The bill would ban intelligence agencies from buying consumer data from brokers without a warrant. The White House opposes the legislation (see 2404160064). “If the government wants to track a suspect today, they could go through the trouble of establishing probable cause and getting a warrant,” House Judiciary Committee ranking member Jerry Nadler, D-N.Y., who co-wrote the legislation, said on the House floor Wednesday.
The Biden administration “strongly opposes” legislation that would ban intelligence agencies from buying consumer data from brokers without a warrant, the White House said in a statement Tuesday. The Fourth Amendment Is Not For Sale Act (HR-4639) would block law enforcement from accessing commercially available information but wouldn’t prevent foreign enemies or the private sector from buying the same data, the administration said: That means the legislation jeopardizes national security but doesn’t protect privacy. The House is expected to vote on the bill this week, after Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., agreed to bring it to the floor during debate on reauthorization of Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (see 2404120044). Responsible use of commercially available data is vital to investigations related to China, illegal drug sales, cyberthreats, child exploitation and terrorist activity, the White House said. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., on Tuesday urged Democrats and Republicans to work together to pass FISA reauthorization so surveillance authorities don’t lapse on April 19. Schumer filed cloture on the motion to proceed to House-passed legislation Tuesday. “If we don’t cooperate, FISA will expire, so we must be ready to cooperate,” he said.