Arkansas Legislature Passes Age Verification Bill That Conveniently Carves Out Basically Everyone EX
Arkansas Legislature Passes Age Verification Bill That Conveniently Carves Out Basically Everyone EXCEPT Meta & Twitter
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But, the really hilarious part of the bill is that right before it passed, for reasons unexplained, the Arkansas legislators added in a bunch of exemptions, that basically means the bill seems to… only apply to Meta’s Facebook and Instagram. Yes, it appears that TikTok, YouTube, Twitch, LinkedIn and others are exempted. Oh yeah, also Truth Social, Parler, Gab and the like, who don’t qualify, since social media sites have to make $100 million in annual gross revenue to qualify.
The exclusions of other companies is so blatant as to be almost hilarious. First, the bill defines a “social media company” to be an online forum where people can “create a public profile,” “upload or create posts or content,” “view posts or content of other account holders” and “interact with other account holders.”
Okay, that should cover most… but then it immediately jumps into exemptions, noting that:
(i) Media company that exclusively offers subscription content in which users follow or subscribe unilaterally and whose platforms’ primary purpose is not social interaction;
(ii) Social media company that allows a user to generate short video clips of dancing, voice overs, or other acts of entertainment in which the primary purpose is not educational or informative, does not meet the exclusion under subdivision (7)(B)(i) of this section;
(iii) Media company that exclusively offers interacting gaming, virtual gaming, or an online service, that allows the creation and uploading of content for the purpose of interacting gaming, entertainment, or associated entertainment, and the communication related to that content;
(iv) Company that:
(a) Offers cloud storage services, enterprise cybersecurity services, educational devices, or enterprise collaboration tools for kindergarten through grade twelve (K-12) schools; and
(b) Derives less than twenty-five percent (25%) of the company’s revenue from operating a social media platform, including games and advertising; or
(v) Company that provides career development 16 opportunities, including professional networking, job skills, learning 17 certifications, and job posting and application services;
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https://www.techdirt.com/2023/04/11/arkansas-legislature-passes-age-verification-bill-that-conveniently-carves-out-basically-everyone-except-meta-twitter/
(Probably exempts the sexual sites like Grindr and others as they probably do not make 100 million in income.
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