The Colorado General Assembly supported permanent high-cost support on Friday. The House, which had earlier passed HB-1234, voted 58-2 Friday to concur with Senate amendments and 51-9 to pass the bill a second time. The bill would indefinitely extend the state's high-cost support mechanism, which provides subsidies to a dozen rural telecom providers and is scheduled to sunset Sept. 1. The Senate passed the bill last week (see 2404160026). Also that day, the House voted 58-2 to concur with Senate amendments and 51-9 to repass a kids’ social media bill (HB-1136). It would require the state’s education department to create elementary and secondary school curricula on social media’s mental health issues (see 2404120013). Gov. Jared Polis (D) will consider the bills next. Meanwhile, the Colorado Senate voted 33-0 to approve a biometric data privacy bill (HB-1130) and 19-14 in favor of a 911 bill (SB-139). The House previously passed HB-1130 but must concur with Senate changes. The House hasn’t considered SB-139, which would create an additional state 911 fee (See 2404160036).
Social Media
Social media platforms are facing intense scrutiny over how they collect, share and monetize user data. As new state and federal laws focus on age verification, parental controls and transparency requirements, social media companies face legal risks around algorithmic targeting, third-party tracking and children's safety. This page follows key legislation, investigations and lawsuits shaping privacy practices for major social platforms.
The House on Friday voted 316-94 to advance a foreign aid package, setting up a Saturday vote on four bills, including one that would force ByteDance to divest TikTok.
Most ex parte meetings on the net neutrality order have focused on Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel and her fellow Democrats Geoffrey Starks and Anna Gomez, with about twice as many meetings as with the Republicans, based on our count. Industry officials said that’s not surprising, saying Commissioners Brendan Carr and Nathan Simington certainly will dissent and have little leverage to seek changes. Commissioners vote Thursday.
Congressional Republicans have remained relatively quiet about the FCC’s draft net neutrality order since Chairwoman Jessica Rosenworcel released it earlier this month (see 2404030043) but are likely to become more active in opposition when the commission adopts it as expected next week, lawmakers and observers said in interviews. Congressional Democrats have been comparatively active since the draft’s release, including sending Rosenworcel suggestions aimed at preventing loopholes that ISPs could use to circumvent regulation. Congressional Democrats highlighted that divergence in style Thursday by bringing Rosenworcel to Capitol Hill for a news conference that amounted to a preemptive victory lap ahead of the FCC’s April 25 vote on the order.
Colorado broadband and social media bills passed their originating chambers Tuesday. The House voted 54-7 on Wednesday to pass HB-1336, which transfers authority for awarding grant money from the state’s high-cost support mechanism to the state broadband office from a broadband deployment board in the governor's IT office (see 2404120013). It will go to the Senate. Meanwhile, the Senate voted 30-1 to pass a kids’ social media bill (SB-158) that would require age verification (see 2404160019). Appropriators cleared the measure Tuesday (see 2404160019). It will go to the House.
"The sky's the limit" when considering Chinese capabilities for conducting digital attacks on critical U.S. infrastructure, since China switched from focusing on economic and political espionage to a strategy that can only be pre-positioning for attacks, Brandon Wales, executive director of Homeland Security's Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA), said Wednesday. Also at a Semafor conference on digital infrastructure, Kathy Grillo, Verizon senior vice president-public policy and government affairs, said the lack of FCC auction authority could have significant ramifications in a handful of years for keeping up with growing data demands. Numerous conference speakers talked about AI’s potential and risks.
A Tennessee bill restricting children on social media will go to Gov. Bill Lee (R). The state House concurred with Senate amendments to HB-1891 in a 90-2 vote Monday. Lee supports the bill, which would require parental consent for kids younger than 18 on social networks (see 2404090018). In Colorado, a social media bill will go on the Senate unanimous consent calendar, the chamber’s Appropriations Committee decided unanimously on Tuesday. The bill (SB-158) would require social media platforms to publish policies and update them within 14 days of any changes to the policies. Also, it would require companies to use reasonable age verification to give users the option of applying certain settings and parental tools for known juveniles under 18. In Wisconsin, bills on minors using social media (AB-373 and SB-385) failed Monday. So did two bills on social media censorship (AB-894 and AB-895). And Wisconsin legislators failed to pass a comprehensive privacy bill (AB-466 and SB-642). Privacy bills failed in previous sessions, too (see 2312190060).
LAS VEGAS -- Broadcasters struggle with an unbalanced relationship with programming networks and tech companies, broadcast CEOs told NAB President Curtis LeGeyt in a panel discussion at NAB Show 2024 Monday. “We cannot finance the content for these networks and then have the network say ‘Watch it on our streaming service the next day,’” said Allen Media CEO Byron Allen. “A challenge is that we’re highly regulated and there are many who are not,” said Graham Media CEO Catherine Badalamente.
Colorado appropriators supported bills on the future of the state's high-cost support mechanism (HCSM) at Friday committee meetings. The HCSM, which provides subsidies to a dozen rural telecom providers, is scheduled to sunset Sept. 1. However, the Senate Appropriations Committee voted 8-0 for a bill (HB-1234) to prolong the fund indefinitely. It previously passed the House but will need another vote there to conform with Senate tweaks. Meanwhile, the House Appropriations Committee voted 7-4 for HB-1336, which transfers authority for awarding grant money from the HCSM to the state broadband office. A broadband deployment board in the governor's IT office currently distributes the money. Senate appropriators also voted 7-1 for a social media bill, HB-1136. The House previously passed the bill, which would require the state’s education department to create elementary and secondary school curricula on social media’s mental health issues (see 2403120065). In addition, it would require social media platforms to display pop-up warnings when users younger than 18 spend more than one hour on a platform during a 24-hour period and when they are active on social media between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m.
House Commerce Committee members on Thursday vowed to find a bipartisan solution for updating Communications Decency Act Section 230.