California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed three more AI bills, bringing the total number to eight this week. The governor’s office said Thursday that Newsom signed SB-942, which requires widely used generative AI systems to add invisible watermarks to content so that it can be easily identified as AI-generated. The governor also signed SB-926, making it illegal to create sexually explicit deepfake images of a real person, and SB-981, requiring social media platforms to establish a way for users to report sexually explicit deepfakes of themselves. On Tuesday, he signed five AI bills related to elections and entertainment (see 2409180024). Newsom has yet to sign a controversial AI bill (SB-1047) that would require large AI developers and those providing computing power to train AI models to implement protections preventing critical harms (see 2409060039). The governor has until Sept. 30 to sign or veto bills that the legislature passed this year.
The FCC urged that the 5th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court reject Maurine and Matthew Molak's challenge of the commission’s October declaratory ruling clarifying that the use of Wi-Fi on school buses is an educational purpose and eligible for E-rate funding (see 2408300027). In a brief Wednesday, the agency argued the Molaks lack standing to bring the challenge and the agency acted within the law when it addressed school bus Wi-Fi.
T-Mobile on Wednesday unveiled a collaboration with Nvidia, Ericsson and Nokia that will “design and drive the future” of mobile wireless networks “with AI at the center.” An AI-based radio access network “will dramatically improve customers’ real-world network experiences and ever-growing demand for increased speeds, reduced latency, and increased reliability needed for the latest gaming, video, social media and augmented reality applications they like to enjoy on their mobile and fixed wireless devices,” T-Mobile said. AI-RAN will “leverage” billions of data points to develop algorithms “that determine optimal network adjustments for maximum performance and to predict real-time capacity where customers need it.” AI will also “supercharge mobile network infrastructure” to simultaneously run third-party AI application workloads at the network’s edge. The companies are founding members of the AI-RAN Alliance and are building an AI-RAN Innovation Center in Bellevue, Washington.
The House Commerce Committee on Wednesday approved a pair of kids’ online safety bills on a voice vote, opening the door for potential floor action and negotiations with the Senate.
A three-judge panel from the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit was skeptical on Monday of TikTok’s argument that the Protecting Americans from Foreign Adversary Controlled Applications Act's planned ban of the platform in the U.S. is unconstitutional (see 2406210004). The statute requires China-affiliated ByteDance must sell TikTok by Jan. 19 to avoid the ban. The D.C. Circuit’s review also looped in a related challenge to that law from a group of TikTok creators. DOJ and ByteDance want the D.C. Circuit to rule by early December so they can have time for a likely challenge in the U.S. Supreme Court before the Jan. 19 divestiture deadline.
Many of the suggested ways of dealing with harms related to social media and smartphones are questionable under the First Amendment, and a scholarly effort is needed to find solutions, Steven Collis blogged Thursday. The founding faculty director of the University of Texas at Austin's Bech-Loughlin First Amendment Center said a better understanding of related problems is needed, such as the dopamine rush that comes with reading and commenting on smartphone posts.
Attorneys, academics and First Amendment experts told us that Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump’s calls for ABC to lose its license over Tuesday's presidential debate telecast (see 2409110058) are nonsensical and that government action against a broadcaster would likely ultimately fail. In addition, some said presidential calls for action against broadcasters over their reporting aren’t unprecedented. “All political players tend to do this when it suits them,” said veteran First Amendment attorney Robert Corn-Revere, now chief counsel for the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression. “None of them have the constitutional authority to back it up.”
The U.S. District Court of Utah granted NetChoice’s request for a preliminary injunction against the state’s Minor Protection in Social Media Act, which was set to go into effect in October. The injunction bars Utah from enforcing the law until NetChoice’s legal challenge is resolved (see 2407230034). The court “recognizes the State’s earnest desire to protect young people from the novel challenges associated with social media use,” said the ruling Tuesday from Judge Robert Shelby. “But owing to the First Amendment’s paramount place in our democratic system, even well-intentioned legislation that regulates speech based on content must satisfy a tremendously high level of constitutional scrutiny.” Utah Attorney General Sean Reyes (R) hasn’t, Shelby wrote. “Utah’s law not only violates the First Amendment, but if enforced would backfire and endanger the very people it’s meant to help,” NetChoice Litigation Center Director Chris Marchese said in a news release. This ruling is NetChoice’s sixth successful request for an injunction against a state social media law. “We look forward to seeing this law, and others like it, permanently struck down and online speech and privacy fully protected across the country,” Marchese said. Shelby said that the law was underinclusive in what companies and websites it applied to and that its provisions against autoplay didn’t appear to prevent the behavior it targeted. “Defendants do not offer any evidence that requiring social media companies to compel minors to push ‘play,’ hit ‘next,’ and log in for updates will meaningfully reduce the amount of time they spend on social media platforms,” Shelby wrote. “We’re disappointed in the district court’s decision preliminarily enjoining Utah’s Minor Protection in Social Media Act," a spokesperson for Reyes said. "The AG’s office is analyzing the ruling to determine next steps. We remain committed to protecting Utah’s youth from social media’s harmful effects.”
Despite numerous social media platform competitors, X has maintained its user base due to its personalized algorithms and people engaging with one another on the platform, Midia analyst Hanna Kahlert blogged Tuesday. However, that changed with X's recent ban in Brazil, as Bluesky has seen a surge in user downloads and usage, she said. It's unknown whether that translates into consistent, long-term usage. But with Bluesky also seeing growth in Portugal and other South American nations such as Chile and Argentina, it appears a competitor can finally draw users from X, she said.
Forty-two attorneys general supported U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy’s recommendation that social media carry warnings like the labels on cigarette packages. Murthy suggested last June that social media companies display warnings about mental health risks associated with their platforms (see 2406170059). The 42 bipartisan AGs, writing Monday under National Association of Attorneys General letterhead and representing states including California, New York and Indiana, supported the idea in a letter to House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., and Senate leaders Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Mitch McConnell, R-Ky. “Young people are facing a mental health crisis, which is fueled in large part by social media,” wrote the AGs from 39 states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa and the U.S. Virgin Islands. “This generational harm demands immediate action. By mandating a surgeon general’s warning on algorithm-driven social media platforms, Congress can help abate this growing crisis and protect future generations of Americans.” New York AG Letitia James hopes “warning labels will be implemented swiftly to raise more awareness about this issue," the Democrat said in a news release Tuesday. Arkansas AG Tim Griffin (R) said, "A Surgeon General’s warning on social media platforms isn’t a cure-all, but it’s a step in the right direction toward keeping our kids safe in digital spaces.”