Colorado Senate votes to override Polis veto of bill meant to curb social media gun, drug sales

Sen. Lindsey Daugherty speaks during a bill signing at the Colorado Capitol on April 24 (Sara Wilson/Colorado Newsline).

The Colorado Senate voted on Friday morning to override a veto on a bill that would require social media companies to remove users who sell drugs and firearms to young people.

If the House takes the same action, it would be the Legislature’s first successful veto override in decades.

“This bill gives us the tools to help remove predators and traffickers who use social media to harm our kids. This is not about censorship. It’s not about speech. It’s about standing up for the safety and dignity of our youngest and most vulnerable,” said Sen. Lindsey Daugherty, an Arvada Democrat who sponsored the bill.

The chamber voted 29-6 to override. It needs a two-thirds majority in both chambers to become law.

Senate Bill 25-86 would regulate social media companies by requiring they remove people from the platform who violate the terms of service by exploiting young people for sexual content or sell drugs or firearms. It would also set a stricter timeline for when companies would need to comply with a law enforcement request for materials and require annual data reports to the Legislature about illegal activity on platforms.

The bipartisan supporters of the bill say it is about protecting children who use social media from predators.

“If we let this veto stand, we are choosing to protect the business interests of billion-dollar tech companies over the safety of Colorado kids,” Daugherty said.

But opponents, a group that spanned the political spectrum including left-leaning ProgressNow and the libertarian group Independence Institute, argued the bill could infringe on free speech and places too much power in the hands of social media companies to police their sites. Gov. Jared Polis, a Democrat, ultimately landed on that side as well.

“This law imposes sweeping requirements that social media platforms, rather than law enforcement, enforce state law. 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,” he wrote in his Thursday veto letter. “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.”

His office pointed to the nine veto requests various organizations sent. In a statement after Friday morning’s vote, spokesperson Shelby Weiman wrote that the the “bill in its current form is unworkable, contains no safeguards for private information that could be leaked, gives big tech too much power to deplatform people, and (Polis) is worried about preserving civil rights and defending vulnerable Coloradans, which are so important at this critical moment.” She wrote that Polis supports certain parts of the bill that give law enforcement more tools to “crack down on online criminal activity, especially targeted at children.”

Democratic Sens. Julie Gonzales of Denver, Nick Hinrichsen of Pueblo, Janice Marchman of Loveland, Katie Wallace of Longmon, Faith Winter of Broomfield and Republican Sen. Mark Baisley of Woodland Park voted against the override.

Polis could also face a veto override vote over his rejection of Senate Bill 25-77, which would set a longer timeline for some open records requests from non-journalists. The Senate laid over that override vote until next Friday.

Editor’s note: This story first appeared on Colorado Newsline, which is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Colorado Newsline maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Quentin Young for questions: info@coloradonewsline.com.