Two California social media bills advanced through their originating chambers Monday. The Senate voted 35-2 to pass a bill (SB-976) by Sen. Nancy Skinner (D) that would provide social media controls for parents, including the ability to decide whether their children see a chronological news feed or one based on an algorithm, the current default. Also, the bill would let parents stop social media notifications and block access to platforms overnight and during the school day. Attorney General Rob Bonta (D), who had proposed the bill (see 2401300049), applauded Senate passage in a statement. “Our children and teens are experiencing a public health crisis, caused by social media companies in their thirst for profits,” said Bonta. “In California, we take mental health seriously, we take children’s online safety seriously -- and we know that we don’t have a minute to waste to protect our kids.” The Assembly voted 65-0 for AB-3172, which would make big social media platforms liable for damages and other legal remedies “if the platform fails to exercise ordinary care or skill toward a child.” It goes next to the Senate, while SB-976 goes to the Assembly.
The FCC Wireless Bureau sought comment Friday on a GeoLinks request that it be allowed to give up some local multipoint distribution service (LMDS) licenses in return for others from the commission’s inventory. GeoLinks proposes to use federal funding to serve some 47,000 locations across Arizona, California and Nevada that now lack access to high-speed broadband. The request involves 51 LMDS licenses that GeoLinks holds -- nine A-block and 42 B-block. Under GeoLinks’ proposal, 32 of the licenses would be modified, and 19 relinquished. “GeoLinks’ current LMDS holdings and the Commission’s unassigned LMDS licenses in inventory are both geographically scattered across the country, which has given rise to a fragmented band map that is underdeveloped, difficult to fully utilize, and less attractive to potential market entrants,” GeoLinks said in a March filing. GeoLinks said it would give up more licenses, markets and MHz-POPs than it would receive but consolidate license blocks “gaining contiguous markets that will result in more efficient and economic deployment targeted to rural and underserved areas in GeoLinks’ core service areas.” Comments are due June 17, replies July 2, in docket 24-150.
Don’t wait to see if Congress finds funding for the affordable connectivity program (ACP), the Center for Accessible Technology (CforAT) urged the California Public Utilities Commission in comments Wednesday. The consumer group supported a petition from The Utility Reform Network (TURN) and the CPUC’s independent Public Advocates Office to modify a 2022 decision that made rules for the California commission’s federal funding account (FFA), which uses broadband funding from the U.S. government (see 2404150062). The petition “accurately highlights that the current FFA rules will become outdated shortly with the anticipated end of the ACP, and it reasonably requests that the Commission modify the FFA rules to support ongoing broadband affordability,” CforAT said in docket R.20-09-001. “The Commission should not delay based on the efforts currently underway to extend the ACP, as the fate of these efforts is uncertain, and the status quo would result in loss of service for program participants.” The CPUC can hit the brakes should ACP get money, it added. But the telecom industry said granting the petition would delay money going out the door to expand broadband. Also, the industry urged the CPUC to avoid using ACP's possible end as an excuse to relitigate settled issues, echoing comments it made days earlier on a separate TURN petition seeking changes to a different grant program (see 2405140037). Thanks to flexible FFA rules, the CPUC "received an unprecedented amount of interest with over 480 applications and at least two applications per county,” commented AT&T. Granting TURN and PAO’s petition will only further delay awards for the applications that already have been pending for eight months, said the carrier: But the CPUC must make awards by Dec. 24 or send the cash back to the U.S. Frontier Communications said the CPUC should “swiftly deny” the petition. "The Commission should not allow the state’s broadband infrastructure deployment objectives to be diverted or delayed by Petitioners’ agenda to revisit rejected policy proposals addressing affordability." AVX Networks and Cal.net piled on. “There is no reasonable basis to delay FFA awards indefinitely while the Commission considers whether to add a completely new requirement on FFA award recipients,” they said. A group of small rural local exchange carriers agreed. “This Petition would compromise the efficacy of this time-sensitive federal grant program, potentially squandering critical federal support for rural infrastructure deployment and impairing the state’s efforts to close the digital divide,” the LECs said.
Verizon’s Tracfone was chosen as exclusive service provider for California’s next foster-youth pilot program, the California Public Utilities Commission said Wednesday. T-Mobile provided service for an earlier pilot. Tracfone “pledges to meet all requirements of the Foster Youth Pilot, including providing each eligible participant with a smartphone equipped with hotspot capabilities, a charging device, unlimited voice and text messaging, 25 GB of mobile data, and 10 GB of hotspot data, all at no cost to the participant,” Chari Worster, the CPUC’s California LifeLine program and project supervisor, wrote in an email to the service list for docket R.20-02-008. California commissioners unanimously supported the pilot at their meeting last week (see 2405090063).
The California sponsor of a digital equity bill is cautiously optimistic about broadband deployment even with trims to the budget that Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) recommended. The governor last week announced a May budget revision that included taking back promised additional funding for the state’s middle-mile network and eliminating a broadband fund for local governments, totaling a $2 billion reduction from earlier plans (see 2405150035). However, Assemblymember Mia Bonta (D), sponsor of a bill seeking to stop digital discrimination (see 2404230039), recognizes “the tough decisions the administration and legislature must make in order to balance the budget,” she said in a statement Wednesday. “I am reservedly hopeful and appreciative of the administration's active engagement with members of the legislature about the solutions being put forth by the administration to provide for neighborhoods like the ones I represent in the East Bay."
The Senate Rules Committee on Wednesday voted along party lines to pass two bills aimed at combating AI-driven manipulation of election content such as deep fakes and synthetic audio.
A possible $2 billion clawback "would keep broadband as a key state priority," California Assembly Communications Committee Chair Tasha Boerner (D) said this week. With the state facing a tough fiscal situation, Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) Friday announced a May budget revision that included taking back promised additional funding for the state’s middle-mile network and eliminating a broadband fund for local governments. However, some digital equity advocates are sounding the alarm with state legislators.
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.
A California proposal to allow people without social security numbers (SSNs) to sign up for low-income telecom support was mostly supported in comments Friday at the California Public Utilities Commission. However, consumer advocates sought tweaks to the CPUC staff proposal to ensure maximum inclusion and disagreed with T-Mobile’s Assurance Wireless on whether accepting applications without SSNs should be mandatory. Other companies generally praised the staff plan while seeking more clarity on certain details.