Gov. Jared Polis vetoed a sweeping social media bill on Thursday, setting up a potential veto override showdown with the legislature, which passed the measure aimed at protecting children with broad bipartisan support.
The last legislative veto overrides in Colorado were in 2007 and 2011 under former Democratic Gov. Bill Ritter and both dealt with budget spending requests.
Senate Bill 86 would require large social media companies used by people in Colorado to take down flagged accounts if they’re determined to be selling guns or drugs, or engaged in the sex trafficking or sexual exploitation of minors.
Companies would also have to set up staffed hotlines for communicating with law enforcement and respond to investigation requests within 72 hours.
The bill would require social media companies to publish annual reports on how many minors use their platforms, how often and for how long, and how much they interact with content that violates the company’s policies. That provision in particular raised red flags for the industry, which warned such reports would be full of proprietary information and could potentially be used by predators to better target underage users.
The veto did not come as a surprise; the Governor’s office testified against the bill, calling it “fatally flawed.”
In a letter explaining his veto, Polis wrote, that while it has good intentions it fails to guarantee the safety of minors or adults, “erodes privacy, freedom, and innovation, hurts vulnerable people, and potentially subjects all Coloradans to stifling and unwarranted scrutiny of our constitutionally protected speech.”
He also said it mandates a private company to investigate and impose the government's chosen penalty of permanently deplatforming a user, “even if the underlying complaint is malicious and unwarranted. In our judicial proceedings, people receive due process when they are suspected of breaking the law. This bill, however, conscripts social media platforms to be judge and jury when users may have broken the law or even a company's own content rules.”
He was also concerned about the data reporting requirements and that sensitive information such as user age, identities, and content viewed could leak and especially harm marginalized communities.
Backers of the bill had been mobilizing since it passed to encourage the legislature to counter Polis in anticipation of a veto.
“We were able to do the impossible by getting people on both sides of the aisle to support our bill - and with a two-thirds majority in both chambers! We can do the impossible again, despite the Governor’s impending veto and get protections for our youth into law,” the non-profit group Blue Rising wrote in an email blast to its supporters on Thursday hours before Polis' veto.
Lawmakers have until May 7th, when the legislature adjourns, to decide whether to override Polis’ veto. Doing so will require at least two-thirds of lawmakers in each chamber. Democratic Sen. Lindsey Daugherty, one of the bill’s main sponsors, says she believes the lawmakers who supported the underlying bill will also back the veto override.
“I have seen how much irreparable harm has been done to these families because of people literally using these platforms who are making billions of dollars on children to sell things that are illegal to children.”
Senate Bill 86 is the second bill vetoed by Polis this year. The other would extend deadlines for the government to respond to open records requests. The public records measure is up for a veto override vote on Friday. The highest number of bills Polis has vetoed in a single year is 10. That happened in 2023.
“He has a right to veto a bill. We have a right to override that veto. It's all part of the process,” said Democratic Senate President Pro Tem Dafna Michaelson Jenet.
