The porn industry dropped its opposition to a California age-verification bill. Here’s why

Andrew Sheeler
·4 min read

Good morning and welcome to the A.M. Alert!

BILL TO KEEP MINORS OFF PORN WEBSITES ADVANCES, ALBEIT IN WATERED DOWN FORM

A bill to push pornographic websites to implement age-verification software appears to still be on a glide path through the Legislature, after a hearing Tuesday in the Senate Judiciary Committee saw bipartisan support for it.

AB 3080 has been amended so that the required “reasonable steps” such websites must take to prevent minors from accessing them now includes “metadata or response headers identifying the product as sexually explicit to parental control software, embedded hardware applications, and other similar services designed to block, filter, monitor or otherwise prevent a minor’s access to inappropriate online content, or that blocks users designated as minors by the operating system of the device used to access the website,” according to the committee analysis of the bill.

The amendments also make it so only the California Attorney General can prosecute violations, and delays implementation til 2027.

Those amendments satisfied the porn industry-backed Free Speech Coalition, which withdrew its opposition from the bill. And it left dissatisfied the conservative California Family Council, which pointed out that most porn websites already voluntarily take such steps.

Still, bill author Assemblyman Juan Alanis, R-Modesto, called it a win.

Not so fast, though, argued representatives from the free speech group FIRE and the digital civil rights advocacy group Electronic Frontier Foundation.

Greg Gonzalez, of FIRE, said that even the watered down version of the bill would violate the First Amendment, and he mentioned that a federal judge has already put a similar law in Indiana on pause over just such an issue.

Chao Jun Liu, of the EFF, said that this would lead to porn websites collecting users’ data — and the more data they collect, the greater the chance it falls into the hands of bad actors.

Those arguments did not sway the lawmakers on the committee, though. While the final vote tally was not available at deadline, all four lawmakers at the dais on Tuesday afternoon were an “aye” vote.

JUDGE COMBINES TIK TOK LAWSUITS, OPENING LEGAL BRIEF FILED

The conservative Liberty Justice Center this week fired its opening salvo in the legal battle to save the social media platform Tik Tok, which Congress voted to ban unless the Chinese-owned app is sold.

The Liberty Justice Center on Tuesday filed its opening brief in the case, arguing that “the act does not make sense as an effort to protect data security (because) there are more effective means the government could use that would do more to protect Americans’ data while infringing much less on their First Amendment rights.

“On the other hand, the act makes total sense as a means of accomplishing what many of its sponsors said they wanted: preventing the communication of certain ideas to its large audience,” it added.

The Liberty Justice Center lawsuit is one of three such suits challenging the law. Tik Tok has also sued to block it from going into effect, as has a group of Tik Tok content creators.

A U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia judge has combined all three lawsuits into one case, which will be heard on Sept. 16.

According to the Liberty Justice Center, Tik Tok has requested a ruling by Dec. 6, in order to allow time for the U.S. Supreme Court to hear the case before the ban goes into effect.

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“Democrats know their constituents want an opportunity to vote on the initiative without interference. Direct democracy scares them — and so they’re going to try their best to thwart voters and preserve the status quo.”

- Assembly Republican Leader James Gallagher, R-Yuba City, responding to legislative Democrats’ proposed measure to counter the ballot initiative to roll back Proposition 47.

Best of The Bee:

  • California Democrats got dragged into changing Prop. 47 — even though many still oppose it, via Lindsey Holden.

  • Sacramento County stops delivering water to homeless as heat wave starts. Here’s why, via Theresa Clift.

  • Why California GOP Senate nominee Steve Garvey won’t be going to the Republican convention, via David Lightman.

  • California Attorney General warned police about license plate data law. Departments ignored him, via Stephen Hobbs and Tyler Dukes.