California Senator Dr. Richard Pan has introduced a bill (SB 1424) which currently reads as follows:
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billTextClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB1424
So why then do we have claims like the following, made on a "chemtrail" site, Geoengineering Watch, on June 30, 2018
He seems to be referring to an article like this one from a "prepper" site.
https://prepforthat.com/richard-pan-sb-1424-freedom-of-speech/
The reason for all this confusion seems to be a misunderstand of the way the legislative process works. Most of the stories quote this text from an old version of the bill:
California Senate bills go through several revisions before (possibly) coming to a vote. SB-1424 had five versions. The "placing a warning" comes from the second one dated 3/22 (an earlier 2/16 version was actually a placeholder bill that was entirely replace on 3/22). A month after that, on 4/16, all of the requirements to use fact checkers were removed, and the sole requirement placed on site operators was to display a notice saying how they decide what to show people, and if they use fact checkers. Basically asking Facebook to explain the algorithm behind their news-feed.
That was all removed on 5/10/18, replaced with the standard government cop-out: establishing a committee to study the problem, write a report and draft legislation. This was further watered down on 5/25/18, removing all mention of legislation, leaving only the weakest possible version of the bill - to study the problem, and to suggest some actions.
All these version of the bill can be seen on the California Legislative Information web site. You can look at the various version of the bill with the drop-down menu
Each version of the text shows the changes from the previous version in red and struck through, like:
Proposed legislation is not an action of the Government until it's signed into law. It's often just reflecting the desires of one person, and it often starts out badly formed, and impossible to pass. Pan's bill was badly written from the start, with vague language. The first version (putting notices of truefulness on posts) was so obviously unworkable that it was replaced with the version requiring notices. This went further in the legislative process, getting a report from the Senate Judiciary committee on 05/07/18
https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/billAnalysisClient.xhtml?bill_id=201720180SB1424# (also attached) which quite clearly identifies additional problems with the bill, as well as objections from sources like the California Newspaper Publishers Association. For example:
Even at its worst, the legislation was nothing like "policing the information that's spread via social media and other platforms to determine whether or not it's quote true". Right now it's nothing - do a study, report back end of 2019. By then everything will have changed again.
UPDATE: Vetoed by Governor Gerry Brown as not necessary.
http://thepinetree.net/new/?p=67128
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