Social Media

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) vetoed a privacy bill the same day that he signed a measure aimed at protecting children on social media websites. On Monday, the Computer & Communications Industry Association (CCIA) applauded Newsom’s veto of a privacy bill on Friday that would have required global opt-outs in web browsers and mobile operating systems. But Consumer Reports slammed the decision to kill the bill that was sought by the California Privacy Protection Agency (CPPA). Meanwhile, CCIA slammed his signing of legislation meant to reign in algorithms on social platforms.

Lawyers for Maurine and Matthew Molak slammed an FCC pleading asking the 5th U.S. Circuit Appeals Court to reject the couple’s challenge seeking review of a commission order from July that lets schools and libraries use E-rate support for off-premises Wi-Fi hot spots and wireless internet services (see 2408300027). The FCC said the challenge wasn’t ripe because the commission had yet to address a petition by the Molaks seeking reconsideration of the order (see 2409130063).

The lame-duck session will provide a good chance to get kids’ privacy legislation signed into law, Sen. Richard Blumenthal, D-Conn., told us Thursday.

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.”