Sen. Bob Hertzberg, D-Van Nuys, intends to introduce legislation that would disclose such accounts — also known as bots — so that users can understand that their information comes from a fake account, not an individual.
“Digital bots are used by individuals, companies and others to spread information and simulate credibility, without any inkling of who might be behind it,” Hertzberg said in a news release when he announced his bill. “It can be extremely difficult for an individual to determine when he or she is interacting with a bot, because they often appear just like any other person.”
Calls to pull bots from Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other social media websites have grown since revelations that Russian-linked bots sought to interfere in the 2016 presidential election.
In recent testimony submitted to Congress, Twitter, for example, revealed that automated accounts retweeted @realDonaldTrump — then-candidate Donald Trump’s Twitter account — almost 470,000 times, according to Bloomberg.
Hertzberg’s SB 1001 wouldn’t ban bots. It would simply forbid any digital bot from impersonating a human without identifying it as a bot. It would also require any person who knowingly uses, hosts, or controls a bot to disclose that the bot is not a real person.
It’s a disclosure aimed to crack down on what one group describes as a “deceptive and downright dangerous digital practice.”
“Bots are the cyberbullies of our democracy,” said James Steyer, founder and CEO of Common Sense Media, a nonpartisan organization that advocates for improved media and technology choices for children.
Media inquiries for comment about Hertzberg’s bill were not returned by representatives of Facebook, Instagram or Twitter.
Instagram does not allow any automated device, script, bot, spider, crawler or scraper, according to its terms of use. Twitter bans the purchasing or selling of account interactions, warning users that when “you purchase followers, Retweets and likes, you are often purchasing bot (fake) or hacked accounts.” Doing so might lead to account suspension, according to Twitter’s website.
When used in large numbers, critics say, bots can sway advertising audiences and reshape political debates through the false credibility.
“We just want users to know up front whether the information they are receiving is from a real person, and if the users they follow have legitimate followers,” said Hertzberg, who is still working on the final bill text. “This attack on information is serious, and we must find a solution.”
