Send an urgent message to Canadian legislators urging them to stop Trudeau’s ‘Online Harms Act’
(LifeSiteNews) — Many social media users would be required to submit personal information to California under proposed legislation.
Senate Bill 1228 deems anyone an “influential user” if “[c]ontent authored, created, or shared by the user has been seen by more than 25,000 users over the lifetime of the accounts that they control or administer on the platform.”
Sponsor Senator Steve Padilla, a Democrat, says it would apply to “users with more than 25,000 followers.” These are two different things, as someone can see content without being a follower. Furthermore, “seen by more than 25,000 users” appears to apply to the aggregate number of impressions for a post.
The proposal states:
This bill would require a large online platform, as defined, to seek to verify the name, telephone number, and email address of an influential user, as defined, by a means chosen by the large online platform and would require the platform to seek to verify the identity of a highly influential user, as defined, by asking to review the highly influential user’s government-issued identification.
This bill would require a large online platform to note on the profile page of an influential or highly influential user, in type at least as large and as visible as the user’s name, whether the user has been authenticated pursuant to those provisions, as prescribed, and would require the platform to attach to any post of an influential or highly influential user a notation that would be understood by a reasonable person as indicating that the user is authenticated or unauthenticated, as prescribed.
While users could remain anonymous, the state would be enforcing a law that suggests some users are more trustworthy than others, based on the “authenticated” label.
The bill “[g]ives social media users more information about the anonymous trolls and disinformation spreaders with the largest followings and the most power to make disinformation go viral,” according to a news release.
It is supported by leftist group California Common Cause, which introduced other legislation with Padill to address “election misinformation.”
“Foreign adversaries hope to harness new and powerful technology to misinform and divide America this election cycle,” Sen. Padilla claimed in his media statement.
Other bills are part of the introduced package, including legislation on artificial intelligence and “deepfakes.”
“Bad actors and foreign bots now have the ability to create fake videos and images and spread lies to millions at the touch of a button,” he said. “We need to ensure our content platforms protect against the kind of malicious interference that we know is possible. Verifying the identities of accounts with large followings allows us to weed out those that seek to corrupt our information stream.”
Though the bill is far-reaching, it’s more reserved than a proposal from failed presidential candidate Nikki Haley to require all social media users to disclose their real identity. She later backtracked after significant backlash.
Send an urgent message to Canadian legislators urging them to stop Trudeau’s ‘Online Harms Act’