Gov. Jared Polis on Thursday vetoed a bill regulating social media sites, setting up a potential veto showdown with the legislature, where it passed with strong bipartisan support.
This story was produced as part of the Colorado Capitol News Alliance. It first appeared at cpr.org.
Senate Bill 86 would require large social media companies used by people in Colorado to take down flagged accounts if they’re determined to be selling guns or drugs, or if the accounts are engaged in the sex trafficking or sexual exploitation of minors.
Companies would also have to set up staffed hotlines for communicating with law enforcement and respond to investigation requests within 72 hours.
The bill would require social media companies to publish annual reports on how many minors use their platforms, how often and for how long, and how much they interact with content that violates the company’s policies. That provision in particular raised red flags for the industry, which warned such reports would be full of proprietary information and could potentially be used by predators to better target underage users.
The veto did not come as a surprise. The governor’s office testified against the bill, calling it “fatally flawed.”
In a letter explaining his veto, Polis wrote that while it has good intentions ,it fails to guarantee the safety of minors or adults. He said it“erodes privacy, freedom and innovation; hurts vulnerable people; and potentially subjects all Coloradans to stifling and unwarranted scrutiny of our constitutionally protected speech.”
He also said it mandates a private company to investigate and impose the government’s chosen penalty of permanently deplatforming a user, “even if the underlying complaint is malicious and unwarranted.”
“In our judicial proceedings, people receive due process when they are suspected of breaking the law,” he wrote. “This bill, however, conscripts social media platforms to be judge and jury when users may have broken the law or even a company’s own content rules.”
Polis said he was also concerned about the data reporting requirements in the measure and that sensitive information such as users’ age, identity and the content they view could leak, especially harming marginalized communities.
Backers of the bill started mobilizing Thursday to encourage the legislature to counter Polis’ veto with an override vote almost as soon as the legislation passed.
“We were able to do the impossible by getting people on both sides of the aisle to support our bill — and with a two-thirds majority in both chambers! We can do the impossible again, despite the governor’s impending veto and get protections for our youth into law,” the nonprofit group Blue Rising wrote in an email blast to its supporters.
Lawmakers have until May 7, when the legislature adjourns, to decide whether to override Polis’ veto.
Doing so would require the support of at least two-thirds of lawmakers in each the House and Senate.
Senate Bill 86 passed the Senate 29-6 and the House 46-18.
Democratic Sen. Lindsey Daugherty of Arvada, one of the bill’s main sponsors, says she believes the lawmakers who supported the underlying bill will also back the veto override.
“I have seen how much irreparable harm has been done to these families because of people literally using these platforms who are making billions of dollars on children to sell things that are illegal to children,” she said.
Senate Bill 86 is the second bill vetoed by Polis this year. The other would extend public deadlines for responses for open media requests.
“He has a right to veto a bill. We have a right to override that veto. It’s all part of the process,” said Senate President Pro Tem Dafna Michaelson Jenet, a Commerce City Democrat.
The last veto overrides in Colorado were in 2011 and 2007 under former Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter and both dealt with budget spending requests.
This story was produced by the Capitol News Alliance, a collaboration between KUNC News, Colorado Public Radio, Rocky Mountain PBS and The Colorado Sun, and shared with Rocky Mountain Community Radio and other news organizations across the state. Funding for the Alliance is provided in part by the Corporation for Public Broadcasting.
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