Georgia senators grilled tech industry officials opposing a social media bill that's like the Texas and Florida laws that were enjoined by federal district courts. At a livestreamed hearing Thursday, the Georgia Senate Regulated Industries and Utilities Committee mulled SB-393 to treat large social websites as common carriers and require anti-discrimination of content. Chairman Bill Cowsert (R) said the bill would be back on the agenda for the committee’s Tuesday meeting. The bill would stop social media from banning “lawful but awful content” like bullying, racism and hate speech, testified Servando Esparza, TechNet executive director-Texas and the Southeast. Cowsert asked about concerns about “canceling certain voices” due to having a “certain political bent.” Users feel platforms are violating their free speech, he said. “If you say something that the censors at Facebook don't like, then you get silenced.” SB-393 infringes on private businesses’ First Amendment rights, replied Esparza. Sen. John Kennedy (R) asked if platforms had standards for what can and can’t be on platforms. Guidelines “evolve constantly,” as they must, said the TechNet official: For example, nobody could have foreseen kids daring each other to eat Tide Pods. Conservatives and Republicans both do well on social media, said NetChoice Policy Counsel Chris Marchese. For a long time, conservatives didn’t get a fair shot on traditional media, but then former President Donald Trump did very well on social media, he said. Cowsert returned that Trump got kicked off. The Constitution protects businesses deciding what speech to allow, said Marchese. Sen. John Albers (R) complained that he lost his law firm job after Twitter allowed him to be wrongly “canceled” when some groups made false claims about him about a year ago. Marchese said he was sorry to hear that, but it was the First Amendment, not Twitter, that allowed it to happen.

The Washington state House passed a next-generation 911 bill. Members voted 94-1 Wednesday to send HB-1703 to the Senate. The bill would update the state’s emergency communication law for NG-911 and coordinate 911 with the 988 suicide and mental health hotline (see 2201280026).

Altice must pay about $2.2 million as penalty for service quality failures found by a West Virginia Public Service Commission probe, the PSC said Wednesday. The company, known in the state as Suddenlink, must also open a West Virginia call center, hire more technicians and staff for the West Virginia market and do more reporting, including on outages, service appointments and network upgrades, the commission ordered in case 21-0515-CTV-SC-GI. The PSC calculated the fine by assessing $1,000 per day since Altice took over Suddenlink operations, said the order: The $2.24 million will be split equally among existing subscribers and applied as a one-time credit on each customer’s next bill. Suddenlink failed to provide safe, adequate and reliable service, “intentionally reducing its maintenance work and maintenance budget, reducing full-time employees, changing its methods of communicating with its subscribers and ignoring the thousands of customer complaints that resulted,” the PSC said. Chairman Charlotte Lane said the company’s “conduct and performance with respect to its operations in West Virginia have been nothing short of egregious,” with “no excuse … except to increase its bottom line.” PSC staff, localities and the state consumer advocate sought stiff penalties last November after public hearings (see 2111040012). Suddenlink cooperated with the PSC and is reviewing the order, an Altice spokesperson emailed. "We have made and continue to make substantial investments in our network and customer support that are resulting in significant improvements in performance."

An Ohio House panel split by party as it narrowly advanced a comprehensive privacy bill Wednesday. The Government Oversight Committee voted 7-5 for HB-376 at the measure’s fifth hearing before the panel. All Democratic members voted no. Chairman Shane Wilkin (R) ruled as out of order an amendment by ranking member Richard Brown (D), who sought to remove a restriction on private lawsuits and language giving exclusive enforcement authority to the state attorney general. HB-376 can now be scheduled for a floor vote. In Connecticut, 19 Senate Democrats including Sen. Martin Looney and Majority Leader Bob Duff introduced a one-page privacy bill (SB-6) to raise funding to the attorney general’s office “to increase efforts to protect consumer personal information and data from unwanted sale and dissemination.” Edits to Virginia’s privacy law advanced Tuesday. The House Commerce Committee voted 21-1 for HB-1259, saying data about race, religion, sexual orientation, citizenship and certain other things is sensitive only “when used to make a decision that results in legal or similarly significant effects concerning a consumer.” The Finance and Appropriations Committee voted 13-2 for SB-534 to authorize the AG to pursue actual damages to consumers if a data controller or processor continues to violate the privacy law after the 30-day right to cure ends or if it breaches an express written statement it gave the AG. Also, it would clarify that political organizations are nonprofits exempt from the act. The AG may decide if a cure is possible, it said. And the bill would abolish the consumer privacy fund, placing all money collected by enforcement instead in a different state trust fund. The Florida House Commerce Committee plans a Thursday hearing on a comprehensive privacy bill (HB-9), resurrected from a failed 2021 bill, by Rep. Fiona McFarland (D). A New York state privacy bill advanced Tuesday (see 2202080051).

State broadband bills advanced in legislatures Tuesday. The Mississippi Senate voted 52-0 for SB-2604 to create a broadband commission to review applications for federal American Rescue Plan Act funds. The West Virginia Senate voted 34-0 to pass a pole access bill meant to speed broadband deployment. SB-231 goes next to the House. A New York bill (A-8756) to require the Public Service Commission to open a proceeding to streamline pole attachment rules can go to the Assembly floor, after clearing the Ways and Means Committee by a 31-1 vote Tuesday and passing the Corporations Committee 25-0 last month. The similar SB-7689 passed in the Senate last month.

A proposed New York Privacy Act cleared the Senate Consumer Protection Committee by a 5-1 vote at a livestreamed meeting Tuesday. S-6701 is “all about accountability of social media companies,” said Chairman Kevin Thomas (D), the bill’s sponsor. Sen. James Tedisco (R) was the lone member to vote no during the voice vote. Sen. Mario Mattera (R) voted "aye with reservations." The bill goes next to the Internet and Technology Committee.

The New York Assembly passed a cable prorating bill Tuesday. AB-5438 sponsor Assemblyman Ken Zebrowski (D) earlier said he's encouraged by last month’s 1st U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upholding Maine's prorated cable TV refunds law (see 2201190022). "For too long cable companies have gotten away with continuing to charge customers for services they no longer receive," Zebrowski said in a statement Tuesday: The assemblyman looks forward to working with senators to pass the bill in their chamber.

A Hawaii Senate panel cleared a 988 bill that would create a task force to develop and implement a plan to use the calling code for the national suicide and mental health hotline. The Health Committee voted 5-0 Monday for SB-2205. It next needs Ways and Means Committee approval.

A second Florida Senate panel cleared a bill to tweak a 2021 state robocall law (see 2201240048). The Regulated Industries Committee voted 6-0 Tuesday to advance SB-1564. It can now be scheduled for a floor vote. Monday, the House Civil Justice and Property Rights Subcommittee cleared the House version (HB-1095). That bill cleared the Regulatory Reform Subcommittee last month (see 2201200041).

The California Public Utilities Commission plans to vote March 17 on a draft resolution (T-17759) to allow Dish Network’s wireless business to provide California LifeLine services, the CPUC said Tuesday. Comments on the draft are due by March 1, replies March 7, it said. The California commission could also vote at the March 17 meeting on denying Dish’s April 28 petition to modify the state commission’s April 2020 T-Mobile/Sprint OK, related to T-Mobile’s planned 3G shutdown (see 2202030042).