California bill would require social media to disclose ‘bots’

California has proposed legislation that would require social platforms like Facebook Inc. and Twitter Inc. to identify automated accounts, or bots, during a push by state lawmakers to police the technology companies that have proved vulnerable to manipulation and the spread of fake news.

Bots, which can be purchased or created by individuals or organizations, have been used to inflate influence or amplify divisive opinions in politics and national tragedies. In the recent shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, for example, bots with suspected links to Russia released hundreds of posts to weigh in on the guncontrol debate. Russia-linked bots on Twitter shared Donald Trump’s tweets almost half a million times during the final months of the 2016 election campaign, compared with fewer than 50,000 retweets for Hillary Clinton’s account.

“We need to know if we are having debates with real people or if we’re being manipulated,” said Democratic state Sen. Bob Hertzberg, who introduced the bill. “Right now we have no law and it’s just the Wild West.”

The proposed bill would make it illegal for bots to communicate with a person in the state with “the intention of misleading and without clearly and conspicuously disclosing that the bot is not a natural person.” It would require the social platforms to let people report violations, respond to those reports, and provide bimonthly details of those violations to the state attorney general. The legislation is scheduled to go through two committees in California this month.

Recent revelations have forced Facebook and Twitter to come to grips with the extent of malicious software programs on their platforms. Researchers have estimated that as many as 15 percent of Twitter’s active accounts are bots and Facebook has estimated that as many as 150 million people were exposed to Russian propaganda through fake accounts on issues from gun rights to race relations.