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DOGE-Like Effort in FL Could Impact Insurance Industry The wave of housecleaning that’s swept through the federal government courtesy of Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency appears...
Judge Permanently Blocks OH Social Media Access Law A federal judge issued an injunction permanently blocking an Ohio law that requires parental consent for those under the age of 16 to have a social...
State Lawmakers Target PSAOs After targeting pharmacy benefit managers for years for contributing to the high cost of prescription drugs, state lawmakers have begun setting their sights on pharmacy services...
Two years ago, California enacted first-of-its-kind legislation allowing residents to demand that data brokers delete the personal information the brokers have collected about them. Known as the California...
MN Considering Taxing Social Media Apps Minnesota’s Senate Taxes Committee heard a bill ( SB 3197 ) last week that would make the state the first in the nation to tax social media apps. The measure...
Utah became the first state to pass legislation requiring app stores to verify the age of users and obtain parental consent for minors to download apps. The bill (SB 142), which now awaits the approval of Gov. Spencer Cox (R), is a big win for social media companies like Facebook and Instagram parent Meta.
State lawmakers have sought to make social media platforms responsible for such age gating, but their efforts—including Utah’s own first-in-the-nation age-gating law enacted last year—have been held up by legal challenges. Now, Utah could become the first to pass a bill that would put the onus of age verification on app stores instead.
The measure also marks a big momentum shift on such legislation. Last year, Apple killed an effort to pass an app store age-verification bill in Louisiana. This year, at least a dozen other states have introduced similar measures.
There was no word from Cox’s office on whether he would sign Utah’s bill or not. But he supported the social media platform age-verification measure that is now on hold. (POST REGISTER, LEXISNEXIS STATE NET)
A fast-moving bill in Montana (HB 514) would give residents legal ownership of their own image and likeness to protect them from artificial intelligence-generated deepfake photos or videos. The measure, introduced in mid-February and passed unanimously by two House committees and the full chamber in a couple of weeks, would allow individuals to sue for damages of up to $50,000 for violations. Other states, including California and Tennessee, have enacted similar legislation. (DAILY MONTANAN, LEXISNEXIS STATE NET)
A Vermont Senate committee advanced a bill (SB 69) that would require social media companies to adjust their algorithms and default privacy settings for users under the age of 18. The “Kids Code” is part of a series of data privacy bills the state’s lawmakers are considering this year, after Gov. Phil Scott (R) vetoed a sweeping data privacy measure (HB 121) they passed last year. (VTDIGGER)
—Compiled by SNCJ Managing Editor KOREY CLARK
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