POLITICO California Playbook PM: Big Tech faces angry parents in Sacramento

Presented by Greenpeace: Your afternoon must-read briefing on politics and government in the Golden State

May 10, 2022 View in browser   By Susannah Luthi Presented by Greenpeace BIG TECH VS. ANGRY PARENTS: Sacramento likes to lavish love on Silicon Valley. From Gov. Gavin Newsom on down through the Legislature, California's politicians don't like to poke the goose that lays the golden eggs. And tech billionaires, in turn, tout the state's progressive policies — even if they groan about its tax rates. But the Facebooks, Instagrams and TikToks of the world have a new political force to consider — one that's harder to navigate only with cash. Many of the younger legislators have kids. And so they find themselves right in the middle of young people's social media problems. At an informational hearing this spring, parents from two Assembly panels stressed their worry about their children's intensified online presence during the pandemic. Assemblymember Tasha Boerner Horvath (D-Encinitas) said she has blocked her kids from using social media apps like Instagram after seeing how sex traffickers use them as tools to recruit children. Assemblymember Jordan Cunningham (R-Templeton) told a disturbing story of a child predator making inappropriate comments to his young daughter on the seemingly harmless online game Animal Jam. Sacramento's debate over regulating the tech industry for kids is personal — and it has fed momentum for proposals that until recently would have stood no chance. The personal nature could also turn one of the tech lobby's key arguments on its head: that major regulation could take young people away from social media. The full slate of child-and-teen-focused reforms has cleared key committees in the Assembly. Should they win a floor vote, they will face the state Senate. The most notable — and most sweeping — are from the bipartisan Assembly duo Buffy Wicks (D-Oakland) and Cunningham. One would adapt recent U.K. tech rules to California: requiring apps and websites that draw kids to tweak their designs and algorithms to curb the risk of addiction or overuse, exploitation or predatory behavior from strangers, or other harms.  Another would make companies that allegedly and knowingly hook young people to their apps legally liable for doing so. Tech lobbyists have made it clear they want to water down the first and kill the second. If either succeeds, it will show that indeed, all politics is personal. HAPPY TUESDAY AFTERNOON! Welcome to California Playbook PM, a POLITICO newsletter that serves as an afternoon temperature check of California politics and a look at what our policy reporters are watching. We'll go Monday to Thursday through June 9 before returning in August for the legislative homestretch. Got tips or suggestions? Shoot an email to katymurphy@politico.com and sluthi@politico.com or send a shout on Twitter. DMs are open! A message from Greenpeace: Oil Companies are clamoring for new drilling permits, claiming they will relieve California's pain at the pump. In reality, Big Oil executives won't use these permits to reduce gas prices at all. They want to entice investors, maximize profits, and keep us locked into a perilous fossil-fueled future. New drilling won't magically lower the cost of fuel, but it will threaten our children's health, fuel wildfires, and jeopardize our future. Get the facts.   WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW TODAY A NEW CLIMATE PLAN: The California Air Resources Board released its highly anticipated draft scoping plan , laying out a roadmap for how the state will achieve its carbon emissions goals. Last summer, Gov. Gavin Newsom asked the board to look for ways to achieve carbon neutrality by 2035, including how to reduce fossil fuel demand and supply. But climate advocates criticized CARB's plan for relying too heavily on carbon capture and storage to go carbon neutral by 2045, while not moving quickly enough to reduce emissions. "Although CARB staff seem to recognize the urgency of the climate crisis in their presentations to the Board each month, the draft scoping plan does not have that same sense of urgency," said Brandon Dawson, director of Sierra Club California. — Lara Korte The Campaign Trail LABOR LUCRE: Ballots are moving — and so is major union campaign cash. The California Teachers Association has dropped $500,000 into a labor-funded committee backing incumbent Attorney General Rob Bonta, who is fending off multiple opponents looking to anchor the incumbent to crime concerns. The PAC had already drawn $500,000 from SEIU. And another education union organization, the California School Employees Association, dropped $500,000 into a committee seeking to shore up State Superintendent of Public Instruction Tony Thurmond's re-election prospects. — Jeremy B. White   A message from Greenpeace:   ON THE BEATS ABORTION RIGHTS: A group of state lawmakers today argued a reversal of Roe v. Wade would hit disproportionately on women of color and marginalized communities at a news conference where they touted their proposals to boost abortion access in California. Assemblymember Mia Bonta , an Oakland Democrat married to California's attorney general, shared her experience of having an abortion when she was in her early 20s. She called the Supreme Court's draft decision "an attack on women of color that we are facing right now." Bonta said she will be amending Assembly Bill 2091 — which would shield patients who get abortions in California from out-of-state subpoenas of their medical records — so that it would take effect as soon as it is signed into law. Another proposal, to protect Californians from liability associated with out-of-state abortion laws — Assembly Bill 1666 — could get a floor vote as soon as this week. — Juhi Doshi COVID CLIMBING — If it seems like almost everyone you know is testing positive for Covid, you're not imagining it. Cases are on the rise in California, with the seven-day positivity rate hitting 4 percent and many more people testing positive through at-home kits that aren't reported. State epidemiologist Erica Pan told a webinar with physicians today that there's "certainly lots of transmission happening in the state." But she noted California has managed to escape the increase in hospitalizations and death rates that hit other states, particularly in the Northeast, in the latest iteration of the Omicron subvariant surge. Worth acknowledging: Numbers released today by the California Department of Public Health show that the state is on the verge of hitting the 90,000 Covid death toll (it's at 89,957). The number of lost lives would mark a record for the country, but one that's not entirely surprising given California's status as the most populous state. — Victoria Colliver A message from Greenpeace: Right now, fossil fuel CEOs are lining their pockets with profits from the war in Ukraine and soaring gas prices. Chevron's US operations alone could net as much as $7.3 billion in record-setting profits this year. At the same time, Oil Companies are clamoring for new drilling permits, claiming they will relieve California's pain at the pump. The truth is, building new fossil fuel infrastructure would take years to come on line and won't help the current crisis. Big Oil executives don't want these permits to reduce gas prices at all. They want to entice investors, maximize profits, and keep us locked into a perilous fossil-fueled future. New drilling won't magically lower the cost of fuel, but it will threaten our children's health, fuel wildfires, and jeopardize our future. Get the facts.   AROUND CALIFORNIA Compiled by Juhi Doshi "These are now the 10 tightest 2022 House races in California. Here's the latest," by SacBee's Gillian Brassil: "With June primaries swiftly approaching for this year's United States House of Representatives' elections, analysts have updated their ratings on which races could decide whether Republicans or Democrats hold the power in 2023. Several elections in California could determine if the GOP and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Bakersfield, control the chamber." "The party of the president — now Joe Biden, a Democrat — tends to perform poorly in midterm elections. With Biden's approval rating slipping on inflation, gas prices and pandemic policies, many experts have predicted that Republicans have an upper hand." " Lawmakers call for inquiry into state Controller Betty Yee's role in failed mask deal," by the LATimes' Melody Gutierrez: "California lawmakers say they are troubled by state Controller Betty Yee's behind-the-scenes advice to a politically-connected company seeking a $600-million no-bid government contract to provide COVID-19 masks, prompting some to call for a second legislative hearing into the failed deal. "Yee's role in California's scuttled state contract with Blue Flame Medical LLC went undisclosed for two years, despite a lengthy legislative inquiry and federal investigation. Documents from a civil lawsuit reviewed by The Times detail how the two-term Democrat — with no formal role in the state contracting process — sought inroads for Blue Flame with the administration of Gov. Gavin Newsom, suggested language on how to ask the state for a large upfront payment and then worked to expedite the agreement." MIXTAPE — The person who committed a sexual assault that sparked fierce debate over Los Angeles County District Attorney George Gascón's policy of not trying juveniles as adults has been charged with murder and robberyin Kern County. (LATimes) — An SF boba shop is suspected to be a front for an international car-burglary operation, where stolen goods are shipped off to as far as Vietnam and China. (SF Chronicle) — The Santa Clara Valley Water District is proposing to hire water enforcement officials to issue fines of up to $500 for residents watering so much that it runs into the street or watering lawns too many times a week or wasting water in other ways. (The Mercury News)   Follow us on Twitter Katy Murphy @katymurphy POLITICO California @politicoca   Subscribe to the POLITICO Playbook family Playbook  |  Playbook PM  |  California Playbook  |  Florida Playbook  |  Illinois Playbook  |  Massachusetts Playbook  |  New Jersey Playbook  |  New York Playbook  |  Ottawa Playbook  |  Brussels Playbook  |  London Playbook View all our political and policy newsletters Follow us

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