EVERGREEN, Colo. — Lawmakers at the state and federal levels announced Monday that they are sponsoring new legislation to prevent school shootings in response to the mass shooting at Evergreen High in September of last year.
Rep. Brittany Pettersen has proposed the Evergreen Community Safety Act, which would require social media companies to respond to federal warrants for credible threats within 72 hours. Currently, social media companies have 35 days to respond to search warrants.
State Representative Tammy Story announced similar legislation at the state level.
This comes after lawmakers learned the FBI was investigating several concerning TikTok posts by the Evergreen High School shooter months before the shooting. By the time the social media company complied with subpoenas, the shooting had already happened. Investigators believe that if they were able to identify the shooter sooner, they could have prevented the tragedy from occurring.
Evergreen
FBI investigated Evergreen High School shooter’s social media in July
MSU Denver Chair of Journalism and Media Production Chris Jennings told Denver7 there are many reasons it takes social media companies a long time to comply with search warrants. One reason is the costs associated with collecting the data, and the other is confusion over jurisdiction.
“When we're looking at a federal level, that's a little clearer cut, but when they're coming from states and municipalities, it becomes a much different issue, especially with states having different laws and also where the servers are located,” Jennings said.
Jennings said that where the server is located, or where the computer user is located, can determine jurisdiction.
He said that over time, social media companies have become more cooperative with law enforcement, particularly on broad cases.
“I think they've also done some things for our rights as citizens of the United States,” Jennings said. “But we're also seeing some agreement with social media companies working with authorities on some of these larger cases that they can at least provide some of the data for them.”
The confusion over differing state laws makes it even more important for federal lawmakers to pass clear legislation that can apply across all states, Jennings said.
There is growing optimism that Congress will make progress this year, as lawmakers have started consulting with social media companies before drafting legislation to secure more cooperation.
