It's a bill written by the Florida House of Representatives, so there's a definition there. Mind you, it's the Florida House, which has put out some extremely bad laws in its current session -- from "Parental Rights in Education" to the Disney speech retaliation. But given that this is a less ostensibly partisan issue, there are reasons for hope.
The definition seems narrowly tailored. I think that part (d)1d is a questionable choice, since most social media platforms will probably argue that they are not really "designed" to be addictive (for various definitions of "designed" and "addictive"). It appears that specific exemptions were made for YouTube, Craigslist and LinkedIn (without mentioning those companies by name), and algorithmic content selection is part of the definition. This is one of the better versions of this law I could imagine being written by a state legislature, though it isn't without its faults. It's nice to see my home state in the news for something good for once.
I agree that YouTube is a particularly difficult case. But part of the problem comes from using it as a digital pacifier, rather than peer pressure. There's no particular reason why the technology market should produce a free stream of child-appropriate videos. Ad-supported media has its ups and downs, but when the targets of those ads are young children, it's much harder to defend. And parents have more control over the behavior of their 4-year-olds than their 14-year-olds.
Here's the definition:
>(d) "Social media platform:"
>1. Means an online forum, website, or application offered39 by an entity that does all of the following:
>a. Allows the social media platform to track the activity of the account holder.
>b. Allows an account holder to upload content or view the content or activity of other account holders.
>c. Allows an account holder to interact with or track other account holders.
>d. Utilizes addictive, harmful, or deceptive design features, or any other feature that is designed to cause an account holder to have an excessive or compulsive need to use or engage with the social media platform.
>e. Allows the utilization of information derived from the social media platform's tracking of the activity of an account holder to control or target at least part of the content offered to the account holder.
>2. Does not include an online service, website, or application where the predominant or exclusive function is:
>a. Electronic mail.
>b. Direct messaging consisting of text, photos, or videos that are sent between devices by electronic means whe re messages are shared between the sender and the recipient only, visible to the sender and the recipient, and are not posted publicly.
>c. A streaming service that provides only licensed media in a continuous flow from the service, website, or application to the end user and does not obtain a license to the media from a user or account holder by agreement to its terms of service.
>d. News, sports, entertainment, or other content that is preselected by the provider and not user generated, and any chat, comment, or interactive functionality that is provided incidental to, directly related to, or dependent upon provision of the content.
>e. Online shopping or e-commerce, if the interaction with other users or account holders is generally limited to the ability to upload a post and comment on reviews or display lists or collections of goods for sale or wish lists, or other functions that are focused on online shopping or e-commerce rather than interaction between users or account holders.
> f. Interactive gaming, virtual gaming, or an online service, that allows the creation and uploading of content for the purpose of interactive gaming, edutainment, or associated entertainment, and the communication related to that content.
> g. Photo editing that has an associated photo hosting service, if the interaction with other users or account holders is generally limited to liking or commenting.
> h. A professional creative network for showcasing and discovering artistic content, if the content is required to be non-pornographic.
> i. Single-purpose community groups for public safety if the interaction with other users or account holders is generally limited to that single purpose and the community group has guidelines or policies against illegal content.
> j. To provide career development opportunities, including professional networking, job skills, learning certifications, and job posting and application services.
> k. Business to business software.
> l. A teleconferencing or videoconferencing service that allows reception and transmission of audio and video signals for real time communication.
> m. Shared document collaboration.
> n. Cloud computing services, which may include cloud o. To provide access to or interacting with data visualization platforms, libraries, or hubs.
> p. To permit comments on a digital news website, if the news content is posted only by the provider of the digital news website.
> q. To provide or obtain technical support for a platform, product, or service.
> r. Academic, scholarly, or genealogical research where the majority of the content that is posted or created is posted or created by the provider of the online service, website, or application and the ability to chat, comment, or interact with other users is directly related to the provider's content.
> s. A classified ad service that only permits the sale of goods and prohibits the solicitation of personal services or that is used by and under the direction of an educational entity, including:
> (I) A learning management system;
> (II) A student engagement program; and
> (III) A subject or skill-specific program.