But one California lawmaker appears to like Haley’s idea and introduced a bill to implement much of it. Two committees already have approved it.
Any company not in compliance risks being sued by California government attorneys. If the company is subsequently found by a court to be noncompliant, it will face a court order to comply and must pay attorney fees and court costs.
Our country has a long tradition of anonymity, including the Federalist Papers, which advocated for the ratification of the Constitution under the pseudonym “Publius.” Anonymity is just as critical today. Important investigative journalism often relies on anonymous sources. Americans use social media to express political opinions that might cause them to lose their jobs. Political dissidents who fled to the U.S. to escape tyrannical governments use social media to speak out against those repressive regimes.
Online speech platforms provide an outlet for these people to be heard. In many cases, the goal is to generate as many views as possible to raise awareness about a social or political issue. But this bill intimidates people from speaking out by forcing companies to seek personal identifying information that could result in real-world harm if it falls into the wrong hands.
If the companies collect the data, state-sponsored hackers will want to get it, either to silence critics or attempt to turn them into propagandists. And all it takes is one rogue moderator offended by a post to dox one, or many, influential users. Anyone challenging power or advocating for or against a controversial issue would understandably think twice about identifying themselves and may perhaps think twice about using social media to advance the cause at all.
There’s little lawmakers can do to protect Americans from “misinformation” and divisive news. Disagreeing with each other about what’s true and false is an important element of our democracy. Like anonymous speech, it’s as American as apple pie.
Though lawmakers think they are protecting our democracy by proposing policies such as SB 1228, they are actually undermining it by discouraging speech.
Unfortunately, so far California legislators don’t understand. Let’s hope they come to their senses soon.
Tiffany Donnelly is deputy director of communications at the nonpartisan, nonprofit organization Institute for Free Speech.