SACRAMENTO, California — A California bill that attempted to penalize social media companies for harming young users is dead for the year, the author confirmed to POLITICO, arguing amendments had watered down the effort in a victory for Silicon Valley opponents.
In response to mounting concerns that online platforms are exacerbating youth addiction and mental health issues, Democratic Assemblymember Josh Lowenthal sought to threaten massive fines of up to $1 million per child on companies whose products were deemed to cause harm through negligent practices.
The bill — the first in the nation of such scope — earned unusual bipartisan support as its proponents echoed warnings from Gov. Gavin Newsom and First Partner Jennifer Siebel Newsom about the potential perils of social media.
But changes in the Senate Appropriations Committee weakened the bill by imposing a tougher legal standard of proving companies “knowingly or willfully” failed to exercise their due diligence. Lowenthal told POLITICO on Friday that he was pulling the bill with just over 36 hours left in the year’s legislative session.
"Poison pill amendments inserted into the bill in the Senate Appropriations Committee mean the bill doesn't do what it's intended to — provide justice for kids harmed by social media," Lowenthal said, characterizing the changes as "a process serving the special interests."
Those amendments largely reflected Meta’s requests for changes to the bill, per an email seen by POLITICO. A Meta representative declined to comment. An industry group of which Meta is a member had argued in committee hearings that the bill would violate First Amendment protections.
The bill’s collapse underscored the challenges Sacramento Democrats have faced in reining in home-state social media giants despite a growing political consensus that the tech companies’ offerings are harming young people.
California legislators have pushed multiple bills in recent years to try and limit the impact on juveniles. They argue they're acting in the face of inaction in Washington, where Surgeon General Vivek Murthy recently proposed slapping tobacco-style warning labels on social media products as bills stall in Congress.
But Sacramento has had little better luck than Capitol Hill as a tech industry blitz has repeatedly thwarted legislation. A bill allowing lawsuits against tech companies that harm kids was shelved in 2022 by the same committee that pared back Lowenthal’s bill, and an industry lawsuit has frozen much of a related law requiring kid-friendly designs.
Lowenthal's bill was championed by an advocacy group, Common Sense Media, whose Chief Executive Jim Steyer initially contemplated pursuing a ballot initiative rather than a bill. Steyer said in an interview that they would introduce another bill next year.
“Very, very deep lobbying pockets in the tech world, led by Meta, spent enough money to undermine the bill,” he said, but “we will ultimately triumph no matter how much money Meta and others spend.”
Lara Korte contributed to this report.
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