A draft law in Florida that would require social media companies to provide encryption background for law enforcement officials to access user accounts has cleared a major legislative obstacle and will now progress to the State Senate for a vote.
Florida lawmakers unanimously adopted by pushing the bill through the Committee, according to Florida policy.
The draft law “Using Social Media by Juveniles” (SB 868), if transferred to law, would require “social media platforms to provide a mechanism to decipher encryption from bottom to bottom when law enforcement receives a leaflet.” The draft law would also ask social media companies to allow parents or guardians to use in a child’s account, and would stop children’s accounts from using features that allow the use of disappearance messages, the draft law states.
Critics, including technology companies and industry organizations that oppose the bill, have long argued that the weakening of encryption would make people less secure by compromising the security of their private messages, and may result in data violations.
In a blog post last week, the Electronier Foundation of the Digital Rights Group criticized the draft law, arguing that encryption is “the best tool we have to protect our internet communications”, and that the adoption of the law is likely to result in escorts of juvenile encryption and making those less users.
“The idea that Florida can” protect “the juvenile by making them less secure is dangerous and dumb,” EFF wrote.
The draft law in Florida is built on a state law adopted last year by limiting social media to people under the age of 16. The law remains largely pending while remains under control in the courts between questions about the constitutionality of the law.
Technology companies, such as Apple, Google and Meta, are increasingly at the end of their users’ data so that their private content is only accessible to the user, not even the companies themselves. This also helps to protect the private messages of users from hackers or underlying company interiors. Coding user data, technology companies say they also cannot provide law enforcement with information they themselves cannot access.
It is not clear whether the draft law proposed in Florida, as written, would require social media companies to apply only one call, which are usually issued by law enforcement agencies and without judicial supervision.
Subloenas are usually not signed by a judge, but can still be used by law enforcement to force limited amounts of account information, such as names, email addresses or phone numbers, from technology companies to their users. Companies will often seek to see a court authorized search order, which demands that the police submit a court with a higher degree of suspected crime evidence before returning a user’s private messages.
A corresponding bill that passes through the house of Florida (HB 743) has a final vote of the Committee to clean before continuing on the room floor for a vote, according to Florida politics.
