by WorldTribune Staff, May 21, 2024 Contract With Our Readers
Google, Meta/Facebook, TikTok and other Big Tech firms are pouring more than $1 million into a lobbying effort aimed at stopping online child safety legislation in New York.
Through mid-March, a contingent of Big Tech firms, advocacy groups, and companies from other sectors have spent $823,235 lobbying Albany lawmakers on two high-profile bills – the Stop Addictive Feeds Exploitation (SAFE) for Kids Act and the New York Child Data Protection Act.
“This is an astonishing amount of money to be spent to kill two reasonable bills,” the New York Post quoted one longtime Albany insider, who requested anonymity, as saying.
The SAFE Act would crack down on addictive recommendation algorithms used by social media apps by requiring them to provide default chronological feeds for users 18 or younger unless they receive parental consent. It would also allow parents to impose time limits on social media use and in-app notifications.
The Child Data Protection Act would block apps from collecting or selling the personal or location data from users under 18 unless they consent. Kids under 13 would need a parent’s consent.
“This could be considered ‘historic’ in the sense that the bills are relatively low impact for the state compared with other issues that get a lot of lobbyist attention,” said Danny Weiss, a Capitol Hill veteran and chief advocacy officer at Common Sense Media, which supports the bills.
New York Gov. Kathy Hochul and State Attorney General Letitia James, both Democrats, have endorsed both bills. Hochul described social media as “a silent killer of our children’s generation.”
More than 25 other groups, including Mothers Against Media Addiction and the New York State United Teachers Union, have also expressed support for the bills.
Tech firms cite fears that the legislation would stifle freedom of speech, online privacy for teens, limit Internet access for migrants and other underserved communities, and essentially disable algorithms that help to crack down on hate speech.
A Meta spokesperson said the company supports federal legislation that would require app stores to get parents’ approval when kids under 16 download apps, rather than a state-by-state solution.
Currently, the SAFE Act has 94 sponsors in the state Assembly, including 81 Democrats and 13 Republicans. In the state Senate, it has 25 sponsors, including 21 Democrats and four Republicans.
Big Tech fights NY state on online child safety legislation added by Editor Two on
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