By Marianne Goodland | Denver Gazette
The state Senate voted 29-6 on Friday morning to override Gov. Jared Polis’s veto of a social media bill. The 29-6 vote was five above the two-thirds majority required for an override.
It’s the first override of a Polis gubernatorial veto of a bill-or any bill from his three predecessors-since the administration of Gov. Roy Romer in 1988.
There have been other veto overrides—in 2007 and 2011—but those were directions from the General Assembly to state agencies as part of the budget process. In at least three decades, no governor has vetoed a budget bill or even a line item in a budget bill, although they do veto those legislative directions occasionally.
Senate Bill 86 would compel large social media companies to remove accounts engaged in illegal activity involving children under 13.
The activities on social media that the bill seeks to rein in include illegal drug sales, illegal firearms sales, sex trafficking of minors, and sexually exploitative material involving children.
In his veto letter, Polis said Senate Bill 86 had good intentions but failed to guarantee the safety of minors or adults; eroded privacy, freedom, and innovation; could hurt vulnerable people; and potentially subject Coloradans to stifling and unwarranted scrutiny of constitutionally-protected speech.
The governor outlined many concerns about the bill, including that it would impose sweeping requirements that, he argued, would mean social media platforms, rather than law enforcement, would enforce state law. He said it would mandate a private company to investigate and impose governmental penalties, notably, permanently de-platforming a user even if a complaint against that user is malicious or unwarranted.
That would make social media platforms the judge and jury, incentivizing those companies to de-platform a user, Polis said.