The measures are part of a broader package of bills that aim to fight vaccine hesitancy — unfounded fears about immunizations that public health officials say have prolonged the pandemic and increased hospitalizations and deaths from the coronavirus.
SB1018 by state Sen. Richard Pan, D- Sacramento, would require social platforms to publicly disclose how their algorithms work and to share the data for research purposes. Supporters of the bill said it's apparent that sites like Facebook use technology that amplifies salacious content like conspiracy theories about the virus.
"We shouldn't have to wait for whistle-blowers ... for us to understand how online platforms and social media have been negatively influencing our lives," Pan said during a virtual news conference. "It should not be left to a handful of potentially very rich tech executives to decide what happens to our society and how we respond to a pandemic."
The measure is modeled after proposed federal legislation, the Platform Accountability and Transparency Act, which was recently introduced in the U.S. Senate and would require similar disclosures.
Pan, a pediatrician, said California cannot wait for Congress to take action to hold tech companies accountable when the coronavirus continues to kill and disable many thousands of people every week. Facebook did not respond to a request for comment.
Dylan Hoffman, California and Southwest executive director for TechNet, a Silicon Valley advocacy group, said in a statement that the type of broad algorithm disclosure that would be required under Pan's bill could actually make it easier for bad actors to "evade company content moderation practices and subject people to further misinformation and other objectionable and harmful content."
Another bill California legislators unveiled Tuesday, AB2098 by Assembly Member Evan Low, D- Campbell, is designed to police false information spread by a small minority of doctors.
Low's bill would make it easier for the Medical Board of California to discipline physicians who spread incorrect claims about COVID-19, including about the effectiveness of vaccines and untested treatments for people who get infected, by defining such activity as "unprofessional conduct" under state law.
The medical board is the state agency charged with licensing and disciplining physicians, and it can suspend a doctor's license or mandate probation for misconduct.
Pan and Low unveiled their measures during a virtual news conference Tuesday with experts on health-related falsehoods. Dr. Nick Sawyer, director of No License for Disinformation, a physician advocacy group, said the bills are necessary because such deception is putting lives at risk.
Sawyer, an emergency room doctor in Sacramento, said he recently had a 70-year-old patient who came to the hospital with a serious COVID-19 infection, but insisted she had the flu and demanded non-FDA-approved medications.
"I was very concerned about her, especially given the fact that she had some additional medical problems," Sawyer said. "But she was adamant that everything was a scam, and she signed out against medical advice."
If passed by the Legislature and signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom, the misinformation measures would likely take effect Jan. 1, 2023.
At least one of the bills, AB2098, is expected to stir fierce resistance from opponents of mandatory vaccines. Critics of vaccine laws say it's premature to label skepticism about vaccines as misinformation and that the science around COVID-19 is quickly evolving.
Christina Hildebrand, an activist who founded the group A Voice for Choice Advocacy, said she worries the bill could drive doctors who promote alternative treatments from California when there's already a doctor shortage.
"It's evolving. For COVID, we just don't have the metrics here," Hildebrand said of guidelines for COVID vaccines and treatments. "What is contemporary scientific consensus?"
The bills unveiled Tuesday are part of a series of high-profile vaccine proposals expected to be hotly debated at the state Capitol this year. Among the other measures:
— AB1993 by Assembly Member Buffy Wicks, D- Oakland, would mandate that all businesses require their employees to get vaccinated for COVID-19 and verify their immunization status.
— SB871 by Pan would expand California's existing COVID-19 vaccine mandate for K-12 students by removing the personal belief exemption.
— SB866 by Sen. Scott Wiener, D- San Francisco, would allow young people ages 12 to 17 to receive vaccines, including for COVID-19, without parental consent or knowledge.
— AB1797 by Assembly Member Akilah Weber, D- La Mesa ( San Diego County), would require health providers to submit all student vaccine records to the state's confidential immunization registry; school administrators could also check the registry.
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