DENVER — State lawmakers are set to discuss a bill Wednesday that would require social media companies to respond to search warrant requests quicker.
HB26-1255 was created in response to the shooting at Evergreen High School in September. v
Denver7 was told then that the FBI was looking into social media posts made by the 16-year-old shooter, just two months before he critically injured two students. However, they couldn't identify who exactly was making the posts.
"There was some stuff that was kind of happening as events were unfolding before the shooting actually happened. And if we could nip something in the bud early on, before it gets to the point like it did here at Evergreen high school, I think that's better for the community," Josh Work, head chef at Wildflower Cafe, said.
We met just a couple days after the shooting. He was offering free breakfast to students.
On Tuesday, we re-connected.
"I think we're very much on the mend," he said.
The bill would require social media companies to acknowledge the receipt of a search warrant about a potentially dangerous person within 8 hours, provide status updates to law enforcement agencies on complying with the warrant and respond to the search warrant, pending changes from the court, within 24 hours.
"My initial take is that we, so much of our lives is digital and having participating in things that could be problematic or dangerous to the community. I think if a social media company has that sort of information, they should hand it over as fast as possible and try to prevent another another shooting like the one that happened here at Evergreen," Work said.
Rep. Brittany Pettersen has also introduced the "Evergreen Community Safety Act," which require much of the same from social media companies, but they'd have 72 hours to respond to the search warrant instead of 24.
Denver7 reached out to Meta, X and TikTok for their comment on HB26-1255. We've only heard back from Meta who declined to comment.
We also reached out to those who oppose the bill. Anaya Robinson, the policy director with the ACLU sent Denver7 the following statement:
“Our concern with the bill is mainly in the Duty to Report section. The bill, as currently written, would allow social media platforms to be the arbiters of what is and is not protected speech, rather than the courts. Once that decision is made, private information is mandated to be handed over to law enforcement, including the IP address, uniform resource indicator, email address, and digital address of the user. All data that, in most circumstances, law enforcement would need a judicial warrant or exigent circumstances to access. This bill does not require a warrant, but alternatively requires the platform to hand the private data over to law enforcement, regardless of the existence of a judicial warrant or exigent circumstances, within 24 hours, clearly circumventing the 4th amendment protections of platform users.”
