‘Superhighways for child sexual abuse’: California lawmakers seek tougher rules for big tech
Summary
Two California lawmakers introduced a bill to make social media companies more accountable for child sexual abuse material on their platforms. The bill would require companies to audit their sites for child safety risks, report results to the state attorney general, and act faster to remove harmful content, with new legal consequences if they fail.Key Facts
- The bill is called AB 1946 and was introduced by Assembly members Maggy Krell and Buffy Wicks.
- It aims to allow lawsuits against social media companies in California for failing to detect or remove child sexual abuse material.
- Companies would need to perform safety audits twice a year and share results with the attorney general.
- The bill would shorten the time to remove harmful content from 30 days to 48 hours in many cases.
- New child sexual abuse material detected must be reviewed by human moderators.
- Penalties would fund a support fund for survivors of abuse.
- Current federal law protects social media sites from liability for user posts but does not protect them from sex trafficking liability.
- Recent court cases in California and New Mexico found Meta and YouTube liable for harm to children caused by their platforms.
Read the Full Article
This is a fact-based summary from The Actual News. Click below to read the complete story directly from the original source.