Vermont Rep. Monique Priestley (D) and Utah Rep. Doug Fiefia (R) will dig into AI policy as co-chairs of a new national task force, the Future Caucus said Monday.
Social Media
Social media platforms are facing intense scrutiny over how they collect, share and monetize user data. As new state and federal laws focus on age verification, parental controls and transparency requirements, social media companies face legal risks around algorithmic targeting, third-party tracking and children's safety. This page follows key legislation, investigations and lawsuits shaping privacy practices for major social platforms.
NetChoice appealed a decision Friday of a district court that declined to block a Tennessee law requiring that social media companies verify the age of account holders and gain parental consent from users younger than 18 before they can open accounts. The organization appealed the decision to the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.
Texas investigated data practices of more than 200 companies and issued “dozens of privacy violation notices” under the Texas Data Privacy and Security Act during the past year, said Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) in a Monday press release touting his office’s privacy accomplishments.
Attorney general draft regulations aim “to stretch the boundaries of the New Jersey Data Privacy Act (NJDPA) -- so much so, in fact, that you should not assume your existing compliance programs would fully satisfy these proposed requirements,” Fisher Phillips attorneys blogged Thursday.
A shareholder lawsuit seeking $8 billion from Facebook for alleged violations of user privacy in connection with Cambridge Analytica was reportedly settled Thursday morning.
Noting the harms social networks pose to children, several California senators supported a bill Wednesday that would add warning labels to the platforms. Though several groups and members of the public supported the legislation, several senators raised concerns that AB-56 would be challenged in court and industry attacked warning labels as an inadequate solution.
A proposed change to the California Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) about publicly available information hit a temporary roadblock Wednesday in the Assembly Privacy Committee. Sen. Aisha Wahab (D) said she planned to work with California businesses over the summer to refine SB-435, which failed to clear the committee but is still alive. “We are deeply committed [to] working with industry.”
The U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld Texas' law requiring age verification to access adult websites (see 2506270041) will have a ripple effect, prompting the creation of similar laws in states along with constitutional questions about how and where age verification can happen, said privacy experts in recent blog posts. Similarly, advocacy groups that disagreed with the high court's decision argued it may embolden other states to expand the definition of off-limits material, further challenging the First Amendment and ultimately letting politicians make content decisions (see 2507070037).
AI and data breaches were among top issues last year for Italian data protection authority Garante, it said Tuesday in an annual report.
A New Hampshire state court on Tuesday allowed a consumer protection case against social media platform TikTok to continue, ruling the state has jurisdiction to bring the suit, and that the First Amendment does not bar it from bringing the claims. One claim involving the Consumer Protection Act was dropped, however.