Colorado Senate Overrides Governor's Veto of Child Safety Bill; House Lacks Votes

The governor Thursday vetoed SB-86, a social media bill that NetChoice said raised privacy concerns (see 2504150039). However, the Senate voted 29-6 on Friday to override the veto.

Then on Monday, the House voted 51-13 to agree to a motion to delay consideration of the governor's veto until May 9. "With a heavy heart," SB-86 co-sponsor Andrew Boesenecker (D) said he supported the motion. While the Senate voted to override, "today, the votes are not here in this chamber to do the same," the House speaker pro tempore said on the floor. "I also accept the reality that ... there's more work to do here."

Polis wrote in his veto letter: “Despite good intentions, this bill fails to guarantee the safety of minors or adults, erodes privacy, freedom, and innovation, hurts vulnerable people, and potentially subjects all Coloradans to stifling and unwarranted scrutiny of our constitutionally protected speech.”

“Further, the costly and mandatory data and metadata collection requirements in this bill throw open the door for abuse by guaranteeing the availability of sensitive information such as user age, identities, and content viewed, and these reports could even be made public at the discretion of the Attorney General,” he said. “This kind of data collection threatens user privacy for those who may be searching for reproductive or gender affirming care in Colorado, as well as for our immigrant communities, especially without safeguards in the bill for how this data would be secured or shared.”