Social media companies must stop spreading election disinformation, California Attorney General Rob Bonta (D) said Friday. The AG sent a letter to Meta, YouTube, Twitter, TikTok and Reddit CEOs on Thursday, days before Tuesday's midterms, the California DOJ said. “Disinformation and misinformation pose very real and growing threats to our democracy and to the rule of law,” wrote Bonta. “While your platforms have taken some efforts to combat disinformation and misinformation campaigns, past efforts have proven inadequate, especially given the growing tide of politically motivated violence nationwide.”

New Jersey’s Assembly Consumer Affairs Committee voted 5-0 for a bill (A-1884) to require telecom, cable TV and ISPs to allow customers to end contracts when a physician refers them to a long-term care facility. “It seems fair,” said Chair Paul Moriarty (D) at a livestreamed hearing Thursday. He said the bill might later be amended to require canceling customers to provide doctor’s notes. The panel also unanimously supported A-3769 to require music and video websites to disclose their correct contact information. The bill by Assemblyman Raj Mukherji (D) aims to thwart intellectual property theft, Moriarty said. The chairman wants to invite telcos to a possible December hearing on a caller ID bill, which was discussed but not voted upon Thursday, he said. Multiple committee members indicated support for A-1034, which would require telemarketers to transmit their name and telephone number.

More than 1 million New York households enrolled in the federal affordable connectivity program, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) said Wednesday. About 30% of eligible New York households subscribe, the governor’s office said. With ACP and “and a multi-agency outreach effort in New York State, we're connecting more eligible households to broadband subsidies than anywhere else in the nation,” Hochul said.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) cleared a social media bill and multiple broadband measures by Friday’s deadline to sign or veto bills from the state legislature. On Friday, Newsom signed SB-1056 to require social media platforms with at least 1 million monthly users to say if they have a mechanism for reporting violent posts. Also, he approved SB-884 to require the CPUC to establish an electric undergrounding program that requires telecom providers to put non-wireless infrastructure underground and pay proportionate costs; SB-717 to require a report about broadband deployment barriers on government-owned structures, private and public lands and buildings and public rights of way; and AB-1426 to clarify nonprofit religious organizations may get grants from the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) broadband adoption account. On Thursday, Newsom signed AB-2752 to clarify what data the California Public Utilities Commission must collect for mapping broadband access. Also last week, Newsom signed bills to make phone calls free for many incarcerated persons and vetoed an industry-supported bill to change the CPUC’s broadband grant review process (see 2209300063).

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed a new law Tuesday establishing transparency requirements for social media platforms’ content moderation practices (see 2208310049). Social media transparency was a major focal point during a Senate Homeland Security Committee hearing on Capitol Hill Wednesday (see 2209140067).Newsom signed AB-587, saying Californians “deserve to know” how platforms shape public discourse and how social media might be “weaponized” to spread disinformation and hate. The new law violates the First Amendment, “hands online predators a ‘roadmap’ to evade child protection measures, hinders platforms’ rapid response to online threats, and harms California’s small businesses, innovation, and competitiveness,” NetChoice said in a statement. The new law will “pull back the curtain and require tech companies to provide meaningful transparency into how they are shaping our public discourse and addressing hate speech, disinformation, and dangerous conspiracy theories,” said Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D), lead author.

Several bills regulating social media are headed to California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s desk, as expected (see 2208300053), after the California Assembly wrapped up its legislative session Tuesday. AB-587, which would establish new transparency requirements for social media platforms’ content moderation practices, passed 66-0. AB-2273, which would require social media companies with child users to follow “age-appropriate” design principles, passed 75-0. AB-2879, which would subject platforms to civil liability if they don’t follow new reporting requirements for cyberbullying, passed 67-1. SB-1008, which would eliminate all telecom fees for prisoners in county jails and state prisons, passed 56-16. SB-1018, which would require platforms to report specifics about how their algorithms rank content, passed 51-21. SB-884, which would require the CPUC to establish an electric undergrounding program that requires telecom providers to put non-wireless infrastructure underground and pay proportionate costs, passed 67-0. “It’s long past time for tech companies to provide real transparency into how they are shaping our public discourse," California Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D), author of AB-587, said in a statement. "The public and policymakers deserve to know when social media companies are amplifying certain voices and silencing others." Newsom (D) should sign the appropriate-design legislation, AB-2273, said Parents Television and Media Council President Tim Winter in a statement, calling it an important, common-sense “step to ensure that tech companies design their products with children’s safety in mind.” The Computer & Communications Industry Association cited “several problematic bills” on content moderation, data privacy and algorithms, singling out “heavy compliance requirements” under AB-587 and AB-2273. “These bills would create significant and potentially costly compliance requirements that may unintentionally stifle innovation and competition,” said CCIA State Policy Director Khara Boender. “The measures require study, as they may raise constitutional concerns and conflict with federal law.”

The California Assembly passed a social media hate-speech bill Tuesday. Members voted 70-0 for SB-1056 to require social media platforms with at least 1 million monthly users to say if they have a mechanism for reporting violent posts. The Senate earlier passed the bill but must vote again to concur with Assembly amendments. SB-1056 is one of several California social media bills up for floor votes before the legislature adjourns Aug. 31 (see 2208120039). Also Tuesday, the Senate voted 40-0 to pass AB-2750 to require a state digital equity plan by Jan. 1, 2024. It needs another Assembly vote to concur with Senate changes.

Microsoft showed its state digital equity scorecard to the FCC Wireline Bureau Friday, the company said Tuesday in docket 22-69. “Microsoft’s objective is to provide state policymakers with tools to better understand their digital equity landscape to better target broadband funding where it is most needed and to help prioritize digital skills training,” it said about the scorecard. Digital skills data should be collected at the state and national levels, said Microsoft. The company plans to update the dashboard after the FCC releases its broadband maps, it said.

New York state will regulate social media. As expected, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) signed a bill Monday, passed last week by the legislature, to require social platforms to provide reporting mechanisms for hateful conduct (see 2206020063). Tech and civil liberties groups say the law is unconstitutional, comparing it to litigated Texas and Florida laws that prohibit content moderation (see 2206020063). The law "sends a strong message to social media platforms ... that they must take real action to protect New Yorkers from the spread of dangerous hate speech and misinformation both online and offline," said sponsor Assemblymember Patricia Fahy (D) in the governor's announcement about signing several bills to strengthen gun laws. NetChoice and the Computer and Communications Industry Association sued those two states. “Because the law was rushed through without the normal period for public comment, we are still reviewing it to decide on our next steps," said NetChoice Counsel Chris Marchese.

More California broadband and social media bills passed their chambers of origin Wednesday. The Assembly voted 76-0 for AB-2702 to set a goal for the California Advanced Services Fund (CASF) public housing account to provide internet connectivity to all public housing residents by Dec. 31, 2025. They voted 74-0 for AB-2749, opposed by the Electronic Frontier Foundation (see 2205240048), to revise the CPUC’s review process for CASF grant applications. Assemblymembers voted 48-18 for AB-2748 to add digital equity requirements to the state’s video franchising law, including a prohibition on “denying equal access to service to any group of potential residential subscribers because of the income of the residents in the local area in which the group resides.” And the Assembly voted 51-18 for AB-2751 to require the California Department of Technology to create a net equality program requiring state agencies to make contracts only with ISPs that offer affordable internet to eligible households. It would define affordable service as at most $40 for 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload speeds. The Senate voted 30-9 for SB-1018, which would require social media platforms with at least 1 million monthly users to annually disclose content moderation efforts.