By Bente Birkeland | CPR News
On November 8, 2020, Chelsea Congdon’s life changed forever.
She and her husband had invited friends over for a backyard party at their home in Old Snowmass. They were building a bonfire when a car from the Pitkin County Sheriff’s Department pulled up.
“The policeman came and found us there and let us know that our son Miles had died in Boulder and his body had been discovered that morning,” she recently recalled to CPR News.
“It felt very unreal. And it feels as if your entire life just shatters on the floor and for some reason, you’re still standing. I mean, it doesn’t make any sense. It’s impossible to put together losing a kid.”
Her son, Miles Brundige, was a 19-year-old sophomore at the University of Colorado. He’d grown up big mountain skiing, racing down backcountry slopes using natural objects as jumps and obstacles. He was a talented pianist and, as his mom describes it, the life of the party, a master prankster they called “Smiles.”
“He was growing up. He was very social. He was figuring out how to have a life of his own and live in an apartment and do all of those things that you figure out at that age.”
Days earlier, Miles had dislocated his shoulder. The hospital in Boulder reset it and sent him home with four Percocet.
Investigators pieced together that, after he used up his prescription, he tried to buy more on Snapchat. But the pills he received were laced with enough fentanyl to kill three people. Congdon said that when the Boulder Sheriff’s Department reached out to Snapchat for more information about the account holder, the company never responded, and the investigation went cold.
“So that case was never solved. We got nowhere. It is an insult. It’s pain on top of everything else,” she said. “That person is still out there, and if this is still their business, they’re still selling things that contain fentanyl on a social media platform that every single kid uses.”
Parents like Congdon have been leading a multi-year effort at the statehouse to require large social media sites like Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram to cooperate more with law enforcement investigations and take steps of their own to enforce their policies on illegal activities. Advocates say social media sites have become unregulated, unmonitored spaces that pose particular risks for young people.
This year, they seemed poised for success. The bill passed the legislature earlier this month with broad bipartisan support in both chambers. But its ultimate fate is uncertain, as backers wait to see whether Gov. Jared Polis will sign or veto a bill his office described as having “fundamental flaws.”
Needed accountability, or an infringement on free speech?
Under Senate Bill 86, large social media companies would have to comply with law enforcement search warrants within 72 hours for investigations into drug and gun sales, and the sexual exploitation or trafficking of minors.
Companies would need to maintain a staffed hotline for communicating with state law enforcement agencies about warrants and release annual reports on compliance, usage and illegal activities.
It would also set a timeline for companies to remove accounts flagged by users for violating their policies in those areas. They would get ten days to look into legitimate concerns, and then 24 hours to remove an account if the complaint is found to be valid.
“A juvenile cannot legally go into a gun store and buy a gun. So where do they go? They go to the marketplace on social media,” 17th Judicial District Attorney Brian Mason said in testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee.
Mason said juvenile violent crime is up in his part of the state, which includes Adams and Broomfield counties, and law enforcement lacks the tools to complete some of their investigations without cooperation from social media companies. He said the speed of their responses to law enforcement warrants is really “hit or miss.”
“It often goes unaddressed (or) we hear nothing for days and days and days at a time. And in order to solve a crime like a homicide, time is of the essence,” said Mason.
But hearings on the bill also brought out opponents, concerned about its implications for free speech, parental responsibility, enforcement and government overreach.
Governor Jared Polis’s office testified in opposition, arguing the bill could potentially stifle innovation and lead to improper data collection on users. His office particularly objected to the requirement that companies compile an annual report on how many minors use their platforms and for how long, and how often those minors interact with content that violates the social media companies’ policies. Collecting that information could potentially violate the Colorado Privacy Act, his office warned.