Indiana’s privacy bill passed the legislature. The Senate voted 47-0 Thursday to concur with changes by the House, which passed SB-5 earlier that week (see 2304120015). With a signature by Gov. Eric Holcomb (R), Indiana could become the seventh state with a comprehensive privacy bill, following Iowa last month. Or it might be Tennessee, where a bill passed the House last week (see 2304110031). The Tennessee Senate was scheduled to take up SB-73 Thursday but didn’t vote and now will consider it Monday. Consumer Reports seeks Holcomb's veto because it says the Indiana bill lacks teeth, doesn't support a global opt-out mechanism and contains weak definitions of sale and targeted advertising. “Bad privacy bills are the trend this year,” CR policy analyst Matt Schwartz said Friday. “This bill contains too many provisions that conform to the wishes of the biggest privacy violators.” Indiana’s bill is most like Virginia’s privacy law, Husch Blackwell privacy attorney David Stauss blogged Thursday. It’s “more business-friendly than the Colorado and Connecticut laws but more consumer-friendly than the Utah and Iowa laws,” he said. The Iowa and Indiana measures “are not the most restrictive of the bunch,” blogged Parker Poe lawyers Friday. “However, the growing number of nuances among state privacy laws can make compliance burdensome.”

Arkansas Gov. Sarah Sanders (R) signed a bill requiring age verification and parental consent to use social media (SB-396), the governor’s office said Thursday. It applies only to new accounts and requires kids under 18 to get parental consent to set up profiles on platforms that have at least $100 million annual revenue. NetChoice slammed the signing. “Age-verification requirements raise privacy concerns, adversely stifle freedom of speech online and pose serious First Amendment problems,” said General Counsel Carl Szabo. “It’s concerning to see states enacting proposals that will undermine constitutional protections while they’re trying to make a good-faith effort to protect minors online.” Utah enacted a similar law this year (see 2303240035). The Computer & Communications Industry Association "shares concerns about the safety of younger users online," but SB-396 creates other privacy problems, said CCIA State Policy Director Khara Boender. The law runs counter to data minimization principles, and "tying the verification of users to liability creates an incentive to store such data for longer periods of time," she said. The law's ban on storing such data "puts businesses in a Catch-22 to comply and not have proof that they ... verified the user's age or to not comply ... but be able to prove they complied with the verification measures," added Boender.

The Massachusetts House included no-cost calls at jails and prisons in a budget proposal released Wednesday. It would tag $20 million in the Communications Access Trust Fund for that purpose. Massachusetts legislators passed a budget bill last year that included free inmate calls, but the proposal died due to disagreement between the legislature and then-Gov. Charlie Baker (R) over an unrelated detention issue (see 2208030056). "The House proposal is good," Progressive Massachusetts Policy Director Jonathan Cohn emailed Thursday. Unlike a previous proposal by Gov. Maura Healey (D), the House's plan doesn't cap the number of free call minutes or exclude county jails, said Cohn: The governor "seemed to be responding to lobbying from sheriffs, who have been a major roadblock."

Golden State Connect Authority announced a partnership with Utah Telecommunication Open Infrastructure Agency (UTOPIA) Fiber to deploy open-access municipal broadband in rural California, the authority said Wednesday. Under the partnership, UTOPIA will handle network design and engineering, project and construction management, plus ongoing operational support including marketing, billing and customer service, the authority said. The authority is currently identifying project locations to install fiber, it said. The network’s open-access model means that multiple ISPs will use the same network to provide service, it said.

A Colorado bill to end a 2005 state ban on municipal broadband cleared the House Local Government Committee. The panel voted 11-0 for SB-183 at a hearing Wednesday. The full House plans to consider the bill Friday. The Senate voted 31-4 last month to pass the measure, which would repeal many parts of the Colorado ban known as SB-152 (see 2303230076).

Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs (D) signed an anti-robocalls bill Wednesday aimed at fighting automated calls and texts. HB-2498 received nearly universal support in the legislature. Also that day, the Montana House concurred with the Senate on a local internet bill (SB-174) that would allow state agencies and political subdivisions to provide funding to private broadband service providers. The bill next needs a signature from Gov. Greg Gianforte (R). The Tennessee Senate voted 33-0 Wednesday to pass a bill that would make changes to broadband laws including raising the state's minimum broadband speed standard to 100 Mbps download and 20 Mbps upload, from 10/1 Mbps. The House previously passed HB-1211. Meanwhile in Texas, the Senate voted 31-0 Wednesday to pass a bill (SB-1425) that would extend a Sept. 1 sunset on USF support for small telcos until Sept. 1, 2033. On Thursday, the Senate added a bill (SB-1893) that would ban TikTok on state government devices to the local and uncontested calendar, which is reserved for noncontroversial bills. Virginia's TikTok ban bill passed the legislature a second time Wednesday after lawmakers agreed to a slight wording change recommended by Republican Gov. Glenn Youngkin (see 2303280042). The Missouri House Elementary and Secondary Education Committee voted 13-1 Wednesday to clear HB-492, which would require a pilot program for schools to teach media literacy including for social media content.

Indiana's sweeping privacy bill returned to the Senate Wednesday after an amended bill passed the House unanimously Tuesday. The House voted 98-0 for SB-5. A Tennessee privacy bill also is nearing the finish line (see 2304110031).

The Colorado House passed a mental health bill that would include continuous appropriations to the 988 crisis hotline. The House voted 47-14 Tuesday to send HB-1236 to the Senate. Currently, the General Assembly must agree to an appropriation annually. The same day in Hawaii, the Senate voted 24-0 for an amended HB-933 to appropriate an unspecified amount of funding for a program to provide free telecom access “to certain information for persons with a print disability.” It returns to the House, which last month supported the bill unanimously.

California set 20 planning workshops on NTIA's broadband equity, access and deployment (BEAD) and digital equity programs, the California Public Utilities Commission said Tuesday. The CPUC and California Department of Technology will partner with local, regional and other state entities to host events around the state from April 14 to June 2, the CPUC said. State officials talked about broadband funding and mapping at a Monday virtual event (see [Ref:2304100048).

Alaska USF’s last distribution would come in January under a tentative schedule presented Wednesday by the Alaska Universal Service Administrative Co. (AUSAC). The company could dissolve soon after, AUSAC Agent Keegan Bernier told commissioners at a livestreamed Regulatory Commission of Alaska (RCA) meeting. AUSAC is preparing for sunset of Alaska USF regulations June 30. The final AUSF remittance would happen in July. AUSAC would distribute $1 million that month and then $77,000 in January before the company wound down. Some are looking for options to renew AUSF before it ends (see 2304110015), but at Wednesday's meeting Commissioner Robert Pickett sounded pessimistic about saving the fund: "We've been told this program essentially is going to be terminated and there are no ... realistic options." Later in the meeting, Pickett predicted "a series of events in which rural LECs are going to have a difficult time and then it will become a political emergency" that could lead to a legislative response. The problem of keeping rural phone rates low "needs a different mechanism that makes sense," he added. Multiple commissioners said they struggled to see how they could classify the looming AUSF sunset as an emergency, a procedural move that would let them expedite making new rules. Chair Keith Kurber and Commissioner Bob Doyle said they first want to see comments due May 5 on repealing AUSF regulations.