Existing law generally regulates social media platforms, including by requiring a social media company to post terms of service for each social media platform owned or operated by the company in a manner reasonably designed to inform all users of the social media platform of the existence and contents of the terms of service, as prescribed. Existing law generally prohibits a person from using violence or intimidation to interfere with another person's enjoyment of certain rights or because of certain attributes of that person, including the person's political affiliation, race, or sexual orientation, and punishes violations of that law with certain civil penalties or as misdemeanors, as prescribed. This bill would make a social media platform, as defined, that violates the above-referenced provisions of law relating to personal rights through its algorithms that relay content to users or aids, abets, acts in concert, or conspires in violation of those laws, or is a joint tortfeasor in an action alleging a violation of those laws, liable for specified civil penalties. The bill would declare its provisions to be severable and would declare attempted waiver of its provisions to be void and unenforceable. This bill would become operative on January 1, 2027.
Existing law, the Digital Equity Bill of Rights, provides that it is the principle of the state to ensure digital equity for all residents of the state, that, among other things, residents have access to broadband that meets specific requirements, and provides that it is the policy of the state that, to the extent technically feasible, broadband internet subscribers benefit from equal access to broadband internet service within the service area of a broadband provider. This bill, contingent upon funding for this purpose, would require a broadband internet service provider, on or before January 1, 2027, and annually thereafter, to submit to the Department of Consumer Affairs, or the Department of Broadband and Digital Equity if Assembly Bill 693 of the 2025–26 Regular Session is enacted, a report containing broadband internet access service pricing and speed data that includes, among other information, the advertised speeds offered to consumers and the advertised and total prices paid by consumers. The bill would require the department to publish an annual broadband internet access service affordability and speed report aggregating and analyzing the data submitted by the broadband internet service providers and would require the department to make the data submitted by broadband internet service providers available to the public, as specified. The bill would make a broadband internet service provider that fails to comply with these provisions subject to an administrative penalty not to exceed $1,000 per violation per day until compliance is achieved. This bill would require a broadband internet service provider to establish and maintain a dedicated consumer complaint resolution process that allows consumers to submit complaints via telephone, email, and an online portal, and would require a broadband internet service provider to respond to a complaint within 7 business days and provide a resolution, explanation, or corrective action within a specified timeframe. The bill would prescribe remedies for a consumer if a broadband internet service provider fails to resolve a complaint within the specified timeframe or refuses to act in good faith, including the issuance of a minimum credit of $50 for a complaint that remains unresolved beyond 60 days without valid justification. The bill would require a broadband internet service provider to disclose the complaint resolution process and remedies clearly and conspicuously in its terms of service, in its billing statements, and on its internet website. The bill would require a broadband internet service provider to report complaint statistics to the department, as specified. Existing constitutional provisions require that a statute that limits the right of access to the meetings of public bodies or the writings of public officials and agencies be adopted with findings demonstrating the interest protected by the limitation and the need for protecting that interest. This bill would make legislative findings to that effect.
Existing law requires school districts, county superintendents of schools, and charter schools to adopt and update a local control and accountability plan (LCAP) using a template adopted by the State Board of Education that requires an LCAP to include certain information, including, among other information, (1) a description of the annual goals to be achieved for specified state priorities, including, among others, pupil achievement and pupil outcomes, (2) a description of the specific actions that the local educational agency will take during each year of the LCAP to achieve these goals, and (3) an assessment of the effectiveness of the specific actions described in the existing LCAP toward achieving the goals, as provided. This bill would, among other things, require the State Department of Education, in consultation with the state board and the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence, on or before December 31, 2026, to prepare, and update at least once every 2 years, a compilation of best practices to harness the power of technology to support pupil academic success and accelerate pupil academic achievement for school districts, county offices of education, and charter schools that receive specified federal funding, including a model policy for incorporation of those best practices into their LCAPs. The bill would require the department, in collaboration with the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence, to conduct at least 3 informational webinars in 2027 for those local educational agencies to understand how to incorporate the best practices and model policy into their LCAPs. The bill would require the department to establish a School Technology Empowerment Advisory Committee that includes at least one school board member, administrator, teacher, and representative from the California Collaborative for Educational Excellence, and multiple individuals or organizations that represent the interests of supporting the use of technology in public schools, with experience regarding the effective use of technology in accelerating pupil academic performance, as provided. The bill would require the advisory committee to share with the Superintendent of Public Instruction, and advise the Superintendent on, best practices to harness the power of technology to support pupil academic success and accelerate pupil academic achievement for local educational agencies. The bill would also require the advisory committee, on or before December 31, 2028, and annually thereafter, to prepare an annual report on the progress in harnessing the power of technology to accelerate pupil academic achievement and to submit the report to the department and the state board.
Existing law establishes the Department of Technology, which is supervised by the Director of Technology, within the Government Operations Agency. Existing law requires the department, in consultation with the public, the Public Utilities Commission (PUC) , and the California Broadband Council, by January 1, 2024, to develop a state digital equity plan that includes specified elements, including the identification of barriers to digital equity faced by covered populations in this state. This bill would create the Broadband and Digital Equity Commission with specified membership, and would, on July 1, 2027, repeal the California Broadband Council and establish the members of the council as a committee of the commission, as specified. The bill would provide that each member of the commission, excluding ex officio members, receive compensation of $100 per day, but not to exceed $400 for any commission business authorized by the commission during any month, and the necessary expenses incurred by the member in the performance of the member's duties. The bill would establish the Department of Broadband and Digital Equity in the Government Operations Agency for the purpose of promoting ubiquitous and universal broadband deployment in unserved and underserved areas of the state and to increase broadband adoption throughout the state for the benefit of all Californians. The bill would, on and after July 1, 2027, declare the department to be the only centralized state department for broadband and digital equity activities within the state authorized to establish rules or regulations for broadband internet access service and internet service providers, as provided. The bill would require the commission to appoint the executive director of the department, who shall serve at the pleasure of the commission, as specified, and would authorize the executive director to appoint, with the approval of the commission, necessary staff, as provided. Existing law requires the PUC to develop, implement, and administer the California Advanced Services Fund to encourage deployment of high-quality advanced communications to all Californians, as specified. Existing law establishes the Broadband Loan Loss Reserve Fund in the State Treasury, and continuously appropriates moneys in the fund to the PUC to be available to fund costs related to the financing of the deployment of broadband infrastructure by a local governmental agency or nonprofit organization, as provided. Existing law requires the PUC to maintain and update a statewide, publicly accessible, and interactive map showing the accessibility of broadband service in the state. Existing law requires the Office of Broadband and Digital Literacy to oversee the acquisition and management of contracts for the development and construction of a statewide open-access middle-mile broadband network to provide an opportunity for last-mile providers, anchor institutions, and tribal entities to connect to, and interconnect with other networks and other appropriate connections to, the statewide open-access middle-mile broadband network to facilitate high-speed broadband service. Existing law requires the office to retain a third-party administrator to manage the development, acquisition, construction, maintenance, and operation of a statewide open-access middle-mile broadband network, as specified. Existing law requires the office, with the third-party administrator, to develop and construct a statewide open-access middle-mile broadband network that prioritizes last-mile connections to unserved and underserved areas and locations. Existing law requires the office and third-party administrator to work directly with last-mile project grant awardees to ensure that network segments, including prioritized stand-alone Department of Transportation construction projects, support last-mile connections, and requires the office and the third-party administrator, to the extent feasible, to minimize disruption due to excavations, as provided. This bill would delete the provisions described in the above paragraph. The bill would, on and after July 1, 2027, require the department to assume all administrative functions of the California Advanced Services Fund and the Broadband Loan Loss Reserve Fund, and require the department to administer and maintain the interactive map showing the accessibility of broadband service in the state and the statewide open-access middle-mile broadband network, as specified. The bill would authorize the department to perform work, at the request of the commission, that the commission deems necessary to carry out its duties and responsibilities, but requires the commission to consider the expertise and resources available to the department, and specifies that the commission is not prohibited from using the services of other public or private entities. The bill would require the commission to advise and assist the department, the agency, and the Legislature in formulating and evaluating state policies and plans for broadband and digital equity programs in the state, and would authorize the commission to participate in relevant federal government rulemakings to advocate on behalf of the department and the state's interests. The bill would require the department to report to the Legislature by July 1, 2028, and at least annually thereafter, on the activities of the department and actions taken by the commission, and would require the report to include, among other things, the number of unserved and underserved households in the state, and progress toward increasing connectivity. The bill would require the department to establish a process to enable California residents, consumer advocates, and local governments to make complaints regarding any activity that may result in digital discrimination of access.
The California AI Transparency Act requires a person that creates, codes, or otherwise produces a generative artificial intelligence system that has over 1,000,000 monthly visitors or users and is publicly accessible within the geographic boundaries of the state to make available an AI detection tool at no cost to the user that, among other things, allows a user to assess whether image, video, or audio content, or content that is any combination thereof, was created or altered by the covered provider's generative artificial intelligence system. The California Consumer Privacy Act of 2018 prohibits certain businesses from selling or sharing the personal information of consumers if the business has actual knowledge that the consumer is less than 16 years of age, unless the consumer, if the consumer is at least 13 years of age and less than 16 years of age, or the consumer's parent or guardian, if the consumer is less than 13 years of age, has affirmatively authorized the sale or sharing of the consumer's personal information. This bill, the Leading Ethical AI Development (LEAD) for Kids Act, would, among other things related to the use of certain artificial intelligence systems by children, prohibit a person, partnership, corporation, business entity, or state or local government agency that makes a companion chatbot available to users from making a companion chatbot available to a child unless the companion chatbot is not foreseeably capable of doing certain things that could harm a child, including encouraging the child to engage in self-harm, suicidal ideation, violence, consumption of drugs or alcohol, or disordered eating. The act would authorize the Attorney General to recover a certain civil penalty for a violation of the bill, as prescribed. The act would authorize a child who suffers actual harm as a result of a violation of the bill, or a parent or guardian acting on behalf of that child, to bring a civil action to recover, among other relief, actual damages. This bill would provide that its provisions are severable.
Existing law generally provides protections for minors on the internet, including the California Age-Appropriate Design Code Act that, among other things, requires a business that provides an online service, product, or feature likely to be accessed by children to do certain things, including estimate the age of child users with a reasonable level of certainty appropriate to the risks that arise from the data management practices of the business or apply the privacy and data protections afforded to children to all consumers and prohibits an online service, product, or feature from, among other things, using dark patterns to lead or encourage children to provide personal information beyond what is reasonably expected to provide that online service, product, or feature or to forego privacy protections. This bill, beginning January 1, 2027, would require, among other things related to age verification with respect to software applications, an operating system provider, as defined, to provide an accessible interface at account setup that requires an account holder, as defined, to indicate the birth date, age, or both, of the user of that device for the purpose of providing a signal regarding the user's age bracket to applications available in a covered application store and to provide a developer, as defined, who has requested a signal with respect to a particular user with a digital signal via a reasonably consistent real-time application programming interface regarding whether a user is in any of several age brackets, as prescribed. The bill would require a developer to request a signal with respect to a particular user from an operating system provider or a covered application store when the application is downloaded and launched. This bill would prohibit an operating system provider or a covered application store from using data collected from a third party in an anticompetitive manner, as specified. This bill would punish noncompliance with a civil penalty to be enforced by the Attorney General, as prescribed. This bill would declare its provisions to be severable.
Existing law authorizes a court to issue a restraining order to a person to prevent abuse, as specified, based on reasonable proof of a past act or acts of abuse. Existing law authorizes the order to be issued solely on the affidavit or testimony of the person requesting the restraining order. Existing law requires a manufacturer of a connected device to equip the device with a reasonable security feature or features that are appropriate to the nature and function of the device, appropriate to the information it may collect, contain, or transmit, and designed to protect the device and information contained in the device from unauthorized access, destruction, use, modification, or disclosure. This bill would authorize a survivor, as defined, or a designated representative of a survivor, to submit a device protection request to an account manager, as defined, seeking to terminate a perpetrator's access to a connected device or associated user account. The bill would define "survivor" for these purposes to mean an individual who has had specified criminal acts committed or allegedly committed against them or who cares for another individual against whom those criminal acts have been committed or allegedly committed, as provided. The bill would require an account manager, within 2 business days of receiving a complete device protection request, to terminate or disable the perpetrator's access to the connected device or user account, or to inform the survivor, in a clear and conspicuous manner, of any methods to reset the device to factory settings or a similar state that removes all account holders, as provided. The bill would specify the requirements for a device protection request and would impose certain requirements on an account manager in processing a request. By providing that a device protection request may include a copy of a signed affidavit, the bill would expand the crime of perjury, and thus impose a state-mandated local program. This bill would require the account manager to clearly describe the process to submit a device protection request on their internet website or mobile application and would prohibit the account manager from providing specified information to the perpetrator. The bill would require an account manager and any officer, director, employee, vendor, or agent thereof to treat any information submitted by a survivor or a designated representative of a survivor as confidential and securely dispose of the information, as provided. This bill would authorize enforcement of these provisions by injunction or civil penalty in any court action by any person injured by a violation of those provisions, the Attorney General, a district attorney, county counsel, a city attorney, or a city prosecutor, against an account manager or perpetrator, as provided. The bill would prohibit a waiver of these prohibitions and would declare that these provisions are severable. Existing law authorizes a court to issue an ex parte order for, among other things, disturbing the peace of the other party. Existing law provides that disturbing the peace of the other party may be committed directly or indirectly, including through the use of a third party, and by any method or through any means including, but not limited to, telephone, online accounts, text messages, internet-connected devices, or other electronic technologies. This bill would provide that, for purposes of those provisions, an internet-connected device includes a connected device as described in the bill. The California Constitution requires the state to reimburse local agencies and school districts for certain costs mandated by the state. Statutory provisions establish procedures for making that reimbursement. This bill would provide that no reimbursement is required by this act for a specified reason.
Existing law establishes the Medi-Cal program, which is administered by the State Department of Health Care Services and under which qualified low-income individuals receive health care services. The Medi-Cal program is, in part, governed and funded by federal Medicaid program provisions. Existing law generally imposes penalties on a person who negligently, willfully, or maliciously discloses the results of a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) test to a third party in a manner that identifies or provides identifying characteristics of the person to whom the test results apply, as specified. Existing law, notwithstanding the above-described restrictions, authorizes the recording of the HIV test results by the physician who ordered the test in the test subject's medical record and authorizes other disclosure of the results without written authorization of the test subject, or the subject's representative, to the test subject's providers of health care, excluding a regulated health care service plan, for purposes of diagnosis, care, or treatment of the patient. This bill would authorize a provider of health care to disclose the results of an HIV test that identifies or provides identifying characteristics of a Medi-Cal beneficiary without written authorization of the test subject, or the subject's representative, to the Medi-Cal managed care plan to which the beneficiary is assigned, if applicable, and to external quality review organizations conducting external quality reviews of Medi-Cal managed care plans, for the purpose of administering quality improvement programs, including, but not limited to, value-based payment programs and healthy behavior incentive programs, designed to improve HIV care for Medi-Cal beneficiaries. Under the bill, HIV test results that do not identify or provide identifying characteristics of the test subjects would be authorized for disclosure without written authorization by the Medi-Cal managed care plan to departmental staff for the above-described purpose. The bill would make certain clarifying or declaratory statements with regard to related provisions.
Existing law provides that everyone is responsible not only for the result of their willful acts, but also for an injury occasioned to another by their want of ordinary care or skill in the management of their property or person. Existing law requires the developer of a generative artificial intelligence system or service that is released on or after January 1, 2022, and made publicly available to Californians for use, to post on the developer's internet website documentation regarding the data used by the developer to train the generative artificial intelligence system or service. Existing law defines "artificial intelligence" for these purposes. This bill would prohibit a defendant who developed, modified, or used artificial intelligence, as defined, from asserting a defense that the artificial intelligence autonomously caused the harm to the plaintiff.
Existing law requires a social media platform to take various steps to prevent cyberbullying of minors on the platform, including by requiring the platform to establish a prominent mechanism within its internet-based service that allows any individual, whether or not that individual has a profile on the internet-based service, to report cyberbullying or any content that violates the existing terms of service related to cyberbullying. Existing law authorizes the State Department of Public Health to establish the Office of Suicide Prevention in the department, as prescribed. This bill would, among other things related to making a companion chatbot platform safer for users, if a reasonable person interacting with a companion chatbot would be misled to believe that the person is interacting with a human, require an operator of a companion chatbot platform to issue a clear and conspicuous notification indicating that the companion chatbot is artificially generated and not human. The bill would also require an operator to take certain actions with respect to a user the operator knows is a minor, including disclose to the user that the user is interacting with artificial intelligence. The bill would also require an operator to prevent a companion chatbot on its companion chatbot platform from engaging with users unless the operator maintains a protocol for preventing the production of suicidal ideation, suicide, or self-harm content to the user, as specified, and would require an operator to publish details on that protocol on the operator's internet website. This bill would, beginning July 1, 2027, require an operator to annually report to the Office of Suicide Prevention certain things, including protocols put in place to detect, remove, and respond to instances of suicidal ideation by users, and would require the office to post data from that report on its internet website. The bill would authorize a person who suffers injury in fact as a result of noncompliance with the bill to bring a certain civil action.
