“Weak requirements around delivering digital evidence make it nearly impossible for victims and their families to seek justice,” Rep. Andy Boesenecker said in a statement.
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Colorado lawmakers are poised to pass legislation requiring social media companies to more swiftly respond to search warrants, months after law enforcement said they were slow to provide information on a student who later shot two classmates at a Jefferson County high school.
Senate Bill 11 passed the state House with bipartisan support Monday, clearing the chamber on a 57-5 vote. Once the Senate — which already passed the bill — waves the House version through a final procedural vote, it will head to Gov. Jared Polis for passage into law.
The bill would require social media companies with more than 1 million Colorado users to establish a streamlined process for responding to search warrants in the state. The bill would require the companies to establish a hotline to respond to law enforcement questions, and it would require them to acknowledge the receipt of the warrants within eight hours.
The companies would also generally be required to comply with the warrants within three days.
The bill is partially a redo of a broader measure that Polis vetoed last year. Dawn Reinfeld, executive director of the nonprofit group Blue Rising, which supported the policy this year and last year, said the bill was focused on helping families whose children died of fentanyl overdoses.
“The social media delays in responding to lawful warrants have cost lives in Colorado,” she wrote in a statement Monday, “and we are grateful to the sponsors for taking this issue up again to remind the platforms that they are not above the law and must comply with law enforcement warrants.”
SB-11’s imminent passage also comes in the wake of September’s Evergreen High School shooting, in which a student wounded two classmates before fatally shooting himself.
The student had an extensive social media presence that showed an idealization of other school shooters and an affinity for antisemitic and Nazi ideologies.
The FBI has confirmed it received a tip about the shooter’s social media presence before the shooting, and the agency issued three search warrants in response. But the FBI didn’t receive a response to the warrant that would’ve provided his home address until hours after the shooting.
“Weak requirements around delivering digital evidence make it nearly impossible for victims and their families to seek justice,” Rep. Andy Boesenecker, a Fort Collins Democrat, said in a statement. “By requiring social media companies to respond to search warrants in a timely manner, we can improve pathways to justice and protect our communities from further harm.”
He sponsored the bill with fellow Democratic Sen. Dylan Roberts, Republican Sen. Lisa Frizell and Minority Leader Jarvis Caldwell.
The bill includes provisions of another measure, Senate Bill 25-86, that Polis vetoed last year. That measure had gone further on its proposed requirements for social media companies, including mandating that the platforms report their internal policies and when users were disciplined for violating them.
Polis’ criticism of that bill was not related to the search warrant procedures. In a statement Monday, Polis spokesman Eric Maruyama said that “ensuring social media companies are responsive to warrants is an important tool to help law enforcement investigate and prosecute online crime, and (Polis) believes SB26-011 does that. Governor Polis looks forward to reviewing the final version of the bill.”
Another bill, House Bill 1255, would similarly require social media companies to streamline their processes. It would require law enforcement to respond to some search warrants within 24 hours. That bill is set for its first committee vote Wednesday.
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