2 hours ago
SACRAMENTO, California — Social media giant Meta is pushing California state lawmakers to shield it from pending legislation that would increase legal penalties in child-harm cases, according to two people familiar with the effort.
The people, granted anonymity to discuss private negotiations, told POLITICO that lobbyists for Meta have approached Senate Judiciary Chair and Santa Ana Democrat Tom Umberg with draft amendments that would create a pathway for social media companies to gain an exemption from the legislation, AB 2.
The bill from ****** emblymember Josh Lowenthal, a Long Beach Democrat, threatens fines of up to $1 million per child for platforms found liable for harming kids through negligent product design. It's set for a Tuesday hearing in Umberg's committee.
Meta's plea comes as it faces hundreds of lawsuits accusing the company of failing to protect kids' safety on its platforms. The proposal is the latest example of how the company is maneuvering politically amid pending product safety lawsuits and surging global efforts to slap strict kids' safety guardrails on social media platforms.
The draft amendments would exempt social media platforms from increased penalties in child harm cases if the companies activate a suite of default child safety settings. Those settings include disabling autoplay, restricting geolocation data sharing, silencing nighttime notifications, preventing kids from receiving direct messages from unknown adults, shielding minors' profiles from public view and preventing explicit material from being shown to kids.
The people, granted anonymity to discuss private negotiations, told POLITICO that lobbyists for Meta have approached Senate Judiciary Chair and Santa Ana Democrat Tom Umberg with draft amendments that would create a pathway for social media companies to gain an exemption from the legislation, AB 2.
The bill from ****** emblymember Josh Lowenthal, a Long Beach Democrat, threatens fines of up to $1 million per child for platforms found liable for harming kids through negligent product design. It's set for a Tuesday hearing in Umberg's committee.
Meta's plea comes as it faces hundreds of lawsuits accusing the company of failing to protect kids' safety on its platforms. The proposal is the latest example of how the company is maneuvering politically amid pending product safety lawsuits and surging global efforts to slap strict kids' safety guardrails on social media platforms.
The draft amendments would exempt social media platforms from increased penalties in child harm cases if the companies activate a suite of default child safety settings. Those settings include disabling autoplay, restricting geolocation data sharing, silencing nighttime notifications, preventing kids from receiving direct messages from unknown adults, shielding minors' profiles from public view and preventing explicit material from being shown to kids.
