While the bill sounds great in question and has passed committee review, it may be a long and hard battle for this bill to make its way onto the governor’s desk. As covered in our AP Government curriculum, the lawmaking process for a bill to become a law is long and complicated, and really, bill AB 656 has only passed the first steps of this process. With that in mind, let’s delve into the politics of it.
Taking a look at the text of the amended bill, a few things stand out. First, as implied in the first section of the bill, the bill is aimed to help adolescents stop their account addictions by mandating that there be no obstructions to one’s account deletion. And while this sounds good in practice, it does beg the question, do adolescents tend to want to delete social media that they are addicted to?
Pew Research Center conducted a study last year revealing that almost half of teenagers say they are online “constantly,” and a very strong majority (90%+) say that they are online either “constantly” or “several times a day.” Combined with a study conducted by the Pew Research Center in 2023 that details that 54% of teens say it would be “pretty hard” to give up social media completely, it seems that the adolescent population doesn’t feel too strong of an incentive to restrict their social media usage and take full advantage of this bill (if/when passed).
However, a study from the University of Michigan seems to imply the opposite, with half of teenage respondents surveyed admitting to have deleted or thought of deleting their social media accounts and apps. Readers can thus come to their own conclusions about the real benefit of social media deletion for teenagers – given that there’s also nothing blocking adolescents from creating multiple accounts or reinstalling previously removed apps with no warnings or obstructions in place.
Moreover, in the text of bill AB 656, under clause 3273.73, the amended bill states a line that essentially gives companies the right to confirm an individual’s account deletion through an email/message/phone call/text message. With that in mind and the extra step required to delete social media accounts, companies that seek to retain their user base (and their precious personal data) may consider implementing further obstructions and confirmation procedures in an attempt to make account deletion as thorny and annoying as possible, in the hopes of wearing the end user out.
Also, an interesting thing to note is that by the definition of “social media platform” as outlined by California Business Code, Canvas, the place where students submit their assignments does meet the definition outlined in California Business code. Furthermore, although Canvas doesn’t generate the required $100M in gross revenue, if at any point the bill is amended to read “social media company” instead of social media platform, the bill’s passage would potentially give students the ability and opportunity to delete their own canvas accounts which would cause a lot of teachers and administrators some pain.
As always, it’s hard to tell if this bill will make it to the top or not. While bill AB 656 is backed by many consumer protection groups, it is also opposed by some technology companies, and ultimately, it may be many months before we see any real progress come on this bill.
Written by Alex Zhao and edited by Darren Lo.
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16 comments:
This exact point has already been made in the blog post :v. Take a look at the 4th/5th paragraphs.
I think this bill could be very helpful for teenagers or even just avid users of social media platforms as well. I think something that many people think about in this day and age, especially when taking things like their job and school into consideration, is their digital footprint. I think this bill, making a clear and presentable button for people who want to delete their data along with the app could be very helpful for reassuring people's minds and maybe even influence them to delete social media. This post mentioned how many teenagers nowadays feel addicted to social media and would find it difficult to delete some of their favorite apps. I think if this bill was passed it would really help with encouraging people to feel more secure in deleting their apps and not being worried about the potential consequences, considering all of their personal data will be deleted as well (according to the companies but who really knows where it's going).
I totally agree with the article’s point that teenagers may be reluctant to delete their social media, which could lessen the bill's impact. That said, Bill AB 656 in California is still a step toward better protecting user privacy by requiring platforms to make account and data deletion easier. If it passes, it’ll be interesting to see what kind of impact it has.
This bill feels morally conflicting as I feel on the legal scope---people being bale to erase their digital footprint so easily could create evidence problems in cases. Moreover, an actual 'undoing' to that extent, may have backlash as whether people like it or not, It is a digital world that we live in, and you either stay connected or stay out in most cases. If there were a 'grace' period, where after this button is deleted, 30 days to get everything back or so---that could work.
I think AB 656 is definitely a step in the right direction, especially with how hard it can be to fully delete an account and all your personal data. I do get why people are skeptical though. Just giving users a “delete” button doesn’t mean everyone will suddenly start using it, especially teenagers who are already so hooked on social media. Still, the option should be there, it shouldn’t be hidden under a maze of settings. The idea that companies might still create roadblocks, even with this bill, is super frustrating. And the canvas part was very surprising, I hadn’t thought about how this could affect schools too. I am definitely curious to see how far this bill goes.
This is a tough bill to see, as there are multiple perspectives to this. One, yes, having privacy is awesome and that is meant to be guaranteed by all citizens. The uprising ideas of Chinese data stealers on TikTok and such may frighten some people, and even articles about Alexa from Amazon listening into every conversation. Being able to know that all the information is private and can be wiped in a second is great. However, digital footprint is still vital in a lot of ways. There may be a case where there were mishaps that occurred while texting, and if someone wipes their data just like that, they can get away really easily scot free.
Giving people an easy way to delete their social media accounts is important in a time when so many feel stuck online. The option should be clear and accessible, even though I believe most people will not use the feature. Companies might try to make it harder than it needs to be, showing the intention of social media creators behind every calculated move they make.
As we discussed in the media unit and recently with the AI speaker, privacy is a huge concern. While I agree with the part about deleting someone’s data after they delete the apps, I don’t think this will necessarily encourage teens to delete their accounts. If they choose to self regulate, they will delete their accounts themselves. So while this feature is a good thing, letting people make the choice for themselves, barely anyone is going to know about it because it’s not something the companies are interested in promoting so i think it’s unlikely that this will reduce the amount of people on social media. We as a world have created better and easier access to technology then ever before and social media can be a good thing to spread useful information or meet new people from different cultures.
I appreciate that this bill, which protects the privacy of social media users, is a positive step in the right direction. Too often, there are cases of data leaks and companies selling data for malicious reasons. The debate surrounding this bill, which primarily addresses personal civil liberties, appears to grapple with the delicate individual rights and government interests. Government interests are enacted by the protection of user information, but the rights of social media companies are hindered by new laws. I think it is interesting to see the debate around this bill find a balance between individual rights and government interests.
This bill sounds like a step in the right direction, making it easier for people to delete their personal data should definitely be a priority. But honestly, I’m skeptical about how much teens will actually use it since so many are basically glued to their social media. Also, the extra confirmation steps might just turn into another way for companies to make deleting accounts a headache. And if something like Canvas ends up covered by this, that could cause some serious headaches for students and teachers. It’ll be interesting to see if this actually makes it through all the political hurdles.
AB 656 is a good step toward giving users more control over their data, but it has some clear limitations. While a delete button sounds great, it doesn’t tackle the real issue—how platforms are designed to be addictive, especially for teens. Studies show teens feel stuck on social media, so many might not even use the tool. Also, the bill only targets large companies, leaving out smaller platforms that still gather a lot of personal data. And the required confirmation steps for deletion could easily turn into “dark patterns” that frustrate users and discourage follow-through. There’s also the question of enforcement—can California really hold national platforms to these rules without running into legal challenges? It's a promising start, but it needs more teeth to actually protect users.
I think this is an interesting path for politicians to encourage young people to reduce their addictions to social media; however, the post also makes a good point that any teen who actually wants to get off of social media would probably have the motivation to click a couple more buttons to delete their account...the bill overall seems like a lot of hoops to jump through for such a minute change but overall it's a nice change and a step in the right direction for the youth of today, even if it is a small one. Teens are often headstrong with the content that they post, and it would honestly very nice to have the option of erasing that part of one's digital footprint (even if there are a multitude of loopholes like screenshots).
While I don't think teens are naturally inclined to delete social media, I think the mere aspect that there is an easily accessible delete button makes the process of breaking addiction patterns easier even if teens won’t be ready to quit social media right away. There will always be ways to maneuver around digital obstacles, but I think the point is that teens have the ability to make a decision, and making that decision easier and more accessible is very helpful at the end of the day.
I think in theory the bill sounds really good, however like many other people have said, the issue is that many people are very attached to social media. So it would be good to have a button with those features as an option but many people would probably never actually remove their social media accounts. As a generation people are so attached to social media that not many people would ever fully just delete their accounts. But I do think the button could help push people in the right direction.
I think that the bill is conceptually incredibly important to the welfare of society, but in reality will have no impact. I think that teenagers have such large addictions to the internet nowadays that a delete button would be largely ignored, and the option to delete the app wouldn’t influence anyone to actually do it. I am also a little skeptical of the survey conducted at the University of Michigan, because I think that some of the participants probably just wanted to appear healthy for research — also the difference between thinking of deleting an app and actually deleting it is VERY large. All this is to say, small steps like these are what can lead our society to a less brain-dead future spent only online. I think while it won’t be utilized much, having a conspicuous delete button is better than not having a visible one at all, and at least puts the idea out there into user feeds so that slowly but surely we can start to build a more offline culture in the future.
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