| 1 | 1 | | CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE 20232024 REGULAR SESSION Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 219Introduced by Assembly Member LowenthalJune 20, 2024 Relative to social media platforms.LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGESTACR 219, as introduced, Lowenthal. California Social Media Users Bill of Rights.This measure would urge social media platforms to universally commit to recognize, implement, and protect certain reasonable rights of their users recognized and declared in the California Social Media Users Bill of Rights, as set forth in the measure.Digest Key Fiscal Committee: NO Bill TextWHEREAS, California is the birthplace of Silicon Valley, one of the greatest economic growth and innovation engines in the history of the world; andWHEREAS, Both the United States and California Constitutions seek to protect the cherished right of all Americans to effectively possess freedom of speech with access to a broad range of perspectives, and any efforts to limit potentially harmful impacts of social media-based communication must be carefully balanced by the goal of maximizing free and robust speech and debate. While the First Amendment to the United States Constitution limits the ability of the government to restrict speech, it does not similarly constrain the ability and civic duty of private entities like social media companies to exercise appropriate care to prevent their platforms from being used to spread hate and disinformation and from causing other known harms, especially to children; andWHEREAS, When social media platforms emerged over two decades ago, they held the promise of bringing people together in a robust and safe public square of free expression, thereby advancing freedom and democracy around the world. Based on this premise, Congress nurtured their growth and success by immunizing their owners from any accountability for many types of harmful and even dangerous content posted by their users or purposely amplified by their own algorithms. Today, these largely unregulated companies have acquired unprecedented influence over which ideas, information, and perspectives billions of human beings are exposed to every day, and some of these companies continue to use the immunity shield provided by Congress to absolve themselves of appropriate responsibility for minimizing harmful and abusive content posted on their internet websites; andWHEREAS, Today, some social media companies have designed their platforms in a manner that enables the instant and widespread reach of hate, harassment, bullying, and disinformation in the pursuit of user engagement and revenue from advertisements. Some even facilitate the sexual exploitation of women and the sexual depiction of children, permit calls for acts of violence, and enable religious, racial, and ethnic persecution; andWHEREAS, While such ills existed before the advent of social media, some of these platforms amplify these dangers to maximize profits amid growing evidence of societal and political harms, and especially of potentially debilitating harms to our children, including rising rates of screen addiction, depression, and social isolation; andWHEREAS, The level of social responsibility demonstrated by different platforms varies substantially. Some platforms maintain and strive to enforce responsible content policies, but others are dramatically pulling back from earlier efforts to stop the spread and reach of harmful disinformation on their platforms at the very time our democracy may be at serious risk; andWHEREAS, Just as Californians and their leaders reject threats and harmful disinformation in the offline world, harassment, bullying, disinformation, and content that endangers and addicts our citizens and especially our young people, as well as threatens our free and fair elections, should have no place on online platforms that have become such integral tools in the daily lives of children and adults; now, therefore, be itResolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate thereof concurring, That the Legislature recognizes it is long overdue for all social media companies to provide and honor fundamental rights and reasonable protections for their users, and for these user rights and reasonable protections to be recognized and declared in the following California Social Media Users Bill of Rights.Social media platforms, therefore, should universally commit to recognize, implement, and protect all of the following reasonable rights and protections for their users:(1) To be free from content that a reasonable person would conclude could cause substantial physical or emotional harm, especially to children. Regardless of the potential absence of any legal duty, social media platforms have a civic duty to undertake vigorous efforts and to expend sufficient resources to effectively monitor for, and reasonably remove, harmful and dangerous content as quickly as possible. This civic duty is at its highest when it comes to protecting the interests of children using their platforms.(2) To be provided as accurate information relating to elections and democratic procedures as possible. Social media platforms also have a critically important civic duty to ensure their platforms strongly prioritize accurate and authoritative election-related information while removing election disinformation and misinformation. Protecting the very democracy that undergirds their own economic vitality as well as the cherished liberties of all Americans should be a core value and priority of social media companies.(3) To be provided with reasonable methods for obtaining support and remediation when making reports of possible violations of platform content rules and to be reasonably informed about the status and outcome of their user-submitted reports and appeals.(4) To benefit from social media platform designs and policies that take into consideration the breadth of languages, ages, and other contexts of their users to make their internationally utilized communication platforms as usable as possible.(5) To have initial user privacy settings set at the maximum privacy protection level. Users thereafter should have the option to knowingly choose to permit the platform to collect, sell, or share some or all of their personal information after being provided with a concise, clear, and user-friendly explanation of why and how any of their personal information will potentially be shared with others. (6) To have the data of our children strictly protected. Platforms should employ evolving state-of-the-art technologies and procedures that minimize the need for personal data collection in order to protect the private data of children and to ensure this data is neither shared with or sold to others, or retained by them without parental or guardian informed consent. They should also provide easily accessible tools for parents and guardians that effectively prevent a minors access to inappropriate adult content and prevent the targeting of advertising at children.(7) To be able to easily and timely obtain their personal data held by platforms in a commonly used and human- and machine-readable format so the user can reuse it, request its deletion or correction, or transmit it.(8) To be provided with easily located, concise, and user-friendly usage, privacy, and terms of service policies. Consistent with the approach taken in the European Union, social media companies policies and procedures should prohibit the use of any user-generated content, including their users social media posts for the training of their own or others artificial intelligence (AI) models, without users providing affirmative consent that is freely given and informed.(9) To expect that social media platforms will study and reduce as much as possible the negative effects that their algorithms and AI tools might have in causing harm to users, especially to young people. As part of this effort, social media platforms should actively work with vetted independent experts to identify and study potential harms, improve the effectiveness of the platforms interventions, and make pertinent platform data available to vetted researchers who can help the platform develop strategies to reduce any harms and risks enabled by their platforms, especially to children.(10) To be informed with easily located, concise, and user-friendly explanations about how the platforms use algorithms, AI, and other platform tools for retaining users. In this regard, the platforms should ensure that their users are provided tools on their internet websites that are easy to find and use, that allow users to effectively control the content of their feeds, that inform users of AI-generated content, and that provide them with the ability to easily opt out of targeted advertisements and cookies, as well as AI-generated content; and be it furtherResolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution. |
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| 3 | 3 | | CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE 20232024 REGULAR SESSION Assembly Concurrent Resolution No. 219Introduced by Assembly Member LowenthalJune 20, 2024 Relative to social media platforms.LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGESTACR 219, as introduced, Lowenthal. California Social Media Users Bill of Rights.This measure would urge social media platforms to universally commit to recognize, implement, and protect certain reasonable rights of their users recognized and declared in the California Social Media Users Bill of Rights, as set forth in the measure.Digest Key Fiscal Committee: NO |
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| 9 | 9 | | CALIFORNIA LEGISLATURE 20232024 REGULAR SESSION |
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| 11 | 11 | | Assembly Concurrent Resolution |
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| 13 | 13 | | No. 219 |
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| 15 | 15 | | Introduced by Assembly Member LowenthalJune 20, 2024 |
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| 17 | 17 | | Introduced by Assembly Member Lowenthal |
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| 18 | 18 | | June 20, 2024 |
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| 19 | 19 | | |
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| 20 | 20 | | Relative to social media platforms. |
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| 22 | 22 | | LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST |
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| 24 | 24 | | ## LEGISLATIVE COUNSEL'S DIGEST |
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| 26 | 26 | | ACR 219, as introduced, Lowenthal. California Social Media Users Bill of Rights. |
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| 27 | 27 | | |
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| 28 | 28 | | This measure would urge social media platforms to universally commit to recognize, implement, and protect certain reasonable rights of their users recognized and declared in the California Social Media Users Bill of Rights, as set forth in the measure. |
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| 29 | 29 | | |
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| 30 | 30 | | This measure would urge social media platforms to universally commit to recognize, implement, and protect certain reasonable rights of their users recognized and declared in the California Social Media Users Bill of Rights, as set forth in the measure. |
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| 31 | 31 | | |
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| 32 | 32 | | ## Digest Key |
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| 34 | 34 | | ## Bill Text |
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| 36 | 36 | | WHEREAS, California is the birthplace of Silicon Valley, one of the greatest economic growth and innovation engines in the history of the world; and |
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| 37 | 37 | | |
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| 38 | 38 | | WHEREAS, Both the United States and California Constitutions seek to protect the cherished right of all Americans to effectively possess freedom of speech with access to a broad range of perspectives, and any efforts to limit potentially harmful impacts of social media-based communication must be carefully balanced by the goal of maximizing free and robust speech and debate. While the First Amendment to the United States Constitution limits the ability of the government to restrict speech, it does not similarly constrain the ability and civic duty of private entities like social media companies to exercise appropriate care to prevent their platforms from being used to spread hate and disinformation and from causing other known harms, especially to children; and |
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| 40 | 40 | | WHEREAS, When social media platforms emerged over two decades ago, they held the promise of bringing people together in a robust and safe public square of free expression, thereby advancing freedom and democracy around the world. Based on this premise, Congress nurtured their growth and success by immunizing their owners from any accountability for many types of harmful and even dangerous content posted by their users or purposely amplified by their own algorithms. Today, these largely unregulated companies have acquired unprecedented influence over which ideas, information, and perspectives billions of human beings are exposed to every day, and some of these companies continue to use the immunity shield provided by Congress to absolve themselves of appropriate responsibility for minimizing harmful and abusive content posted on their internet websites; and |
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| 41 | 41 | | |
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| 42 | 42 | | WHEREAS, Today, some social media companies have designed their platforms in a manner that enables the instant and widespread reach of hate, harassment, bullying, and disinformation in the pursuit of user engagement and revenue from advertisements. Some even facilitate the sexual exploitation of women and the sexual depiction of children, permit calls for acts of violence, and enable religious, racial, and ethnic persecution; and |
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| 43 | 43 | | |
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| 44 | 44 | | WHEREAS, While such ills existed before the advent of social media, some of these platforms amplify these dangers to maximize profits amid growing evidence of societal and political harms, and especially of potentially debilitating harms to our children, including rising rates of screen addiction, depression, and social isolation; and |
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| 45 | 45 | | |
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| 46 | 46 | | WHEREAS, The level of social responsibility demonstrated by different platforms varies substantially. Some platforms maintain and strive to enforce responsible content policies, but others are dramatically pulling back from earlier efforts to stop the spread and reach of harmful disinformation on their platforms at the very time our democracy may be at serious risk; and |
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| 47 | 47 | | |
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| 48 | 48 | | WHEREAS, Just as Californians and their leaders reject threats and harmful disinformation in the offline world, harassment, bullying, disinformation, and content that endangers and addicts our citizens and especially our young people, as well as threatens our free and fair elections, should have no place on online platforms that have become such integral tools in the daily lives of children and adults; now, therefore, be it |
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| 50 | 50 | | Resolved by the Assembly of the State of California, the Senate thereof concurring, That the Legislature recognizes it is long overdue for all social media companies to provide and honor fundamental rights and reasonable protections for their users, and for these user rights and reasonable protections to be recognized and declared in the following California Social Media Users Bill of Rights. |
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| 52 | 52 | | Social media platforms, therefore, should universally commit to recognize, implement, and protect all of the following reasonable rights and protections for their users: |
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| 53 | 53 | | |
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| 54 | 54 | | (1) To be free from content that a reasonable person would conclude could cause substantial physical or emotional harm, especially to children. Regardless of the potential absence of any legal duty, social media platforms have a civic duty to undertake vigorous efforts and to expend sufficient resources to effectively monitor for, and reasonably remove, harmful and dangerous content as quickly as possible. This civic duty is at its highest when it comes to protecting the interests of children using their platforms. |
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| 55 | 55 | | |
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| 56 | 56 | | (2) To be provided as accurate information relating to elections and democratic procedures as possible. Social media platforms also have a critically important civic duty to ensure their platforms strongly prioritize accurate and authoritative election-related information while removing election disinformation and misinformation. Protecting the very democracy that undergirds their own economic vitality as well as the cherished liberties of all Americans should be a core value and priority of social media companies. |
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| 57 | 57 | | |
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| 58 | 58 | | (3) To be provided with reasonable methods for obtaining support and remediation when making reports of possible violations of platform content rules and to be reasonably informed about the status and outcome of their user-submitted reports and appeals. |
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| 59 | 59 | | |
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| 60 | 60 | | (4) To benefit from social media platform designs and policies that take into consideration the breadth of languages, ages, and other contexts of their users to make their internationally utilized communication platforms as usable as possible. |
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| 61 | 61 | | |
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| 62 | 62 | | (5) To have initial user privacy settings set at the maximum privacy protection level. Users thereafter should have the option to knowingly choose to permit the platform to collect, sell, or share some or all of their personal information after being provided with a concise, clear, and user-friendly explanation of why and how any of their personal information will potentially be shared with others. |
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| 63 | 63 | | |
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| 64 | 64 | | (6) To have the data of our children strictly protected. Platforms should employ evolving state-of-the-art technologies and procedures that minimize the need for personal data collection in order to protect the private data of children and to ensure this data is neither shared with or sold to others, or retained by them without parental or guardian informed consent. They should also provide easily accessible tools for parents and guardians that effectively prevent a minors access to inappropriate adult content and prevent the targeting of advertising at children. |
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| 65 | 65 | | |
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| 66 | 66 | | (7) To be able to easily and timely obtain their personal data held by platforms in a commonly used and human- and machine-readable format so the user can reuse it, request its deletion or correction, or transmit it. |
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| 67 | 67 | | |
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| 68 | 68 | | (8) To be provided with easily located, concise, and user-friendly usage, privacy, and terms of service policies. Consistent with the approach taken in the European Union, social media companies policies and procedures should prohibit the use of any user-generated content, including their users social media posts for the training of their own or others artificial intelligence (AI) models, without users providing affirmative consent that is freely given and informed. |
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| 69 | 69 | | |
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| 70 | 70 | | (9) To expect that social media platforms will study and reduce as much as possible the negative effects that their algorithms and AI tools might have in causing harm to users, especially to young people. As part of this effort, social media platforms should actively work with vetted independent experts to identify and study potential harms, improve the effectiveness of the platforms interventions, and make pertinent platform data available to vetted researchers who can help the platform develop strategies to reduce any harms and risks enabled by their platforms, especially to children. |
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| 71 | 71 | | |
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| 72 | 72 | | (10) To be informed with easily located, concise, and user-friendly explanations about how the platforms use algorithms, AI, and other platform tools for retaining users. In this regard, the platforms should ensure that their users are provided tools on their internet websites that are easy to find and use, that allow users to effectively control the content of their feeds, that inform users of AI-generated content, and that provide them with the ability to easily opt out of targeted advertisements and cookies, as well as AI-generated content; and be it further |
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| 73 | 73 | | |
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| 74 | 74 | | Resolved, That the Chief Clerk of the Assembly transmit copies of this resolution to the author for appropriate distribution. |
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