Latest news with #FloridaDeceptiveandUnfairTradePracticesAct
Yahoo
2 days ago
- Politics
- Yahoo
DeSantis signs Brooke's Law targetting deepfakes
Brooke's Law is aimed at protecting minor victims of deepfakes on social media. (Stock photo by Daniel de) Gov. Ron DeSantis signed a slew of bills Tuesday, including one requiring social media platforms to delete deepfakes, or AI-generated sexual depictions of people created without their consent. Brooke's Law, named after the Jacksonville teen who spearheaded the proposal, also requires platforms to create by Dec. 31 a process for people to submit requests to remove the sexually explicit content within 48 hours. While she was a minor in high school, Brooke Curry, daughter of the former Jacksonville mayor, had a picture taken from her social media and sexually altered using AI without her consent. 'Brooke's Law is not just about me, it's about all of us. It's about accountability, dignity, and hope for every person who has been exploited or violated,' Curry said during the bill signing ceremony. Companies that don't make good faith efforts to remove deepfakes would violate the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act, meaning the state could pursue damages and civil penalties. Meanwhile, the governor criticized Donald Trump's 'Big, Beautiful Bill' for a provision prohibiting states from regulating AI for 10 years. 'They can have you depict you doing awful things. That's not the world that we want to live in, and so I think that the states need to be able to retain their ability to handle the emerging AI issues,' DeSantis said. 'We're not going to run away from it.' DeSantis signed three other bills: HB 777 increases penalties for luring children; HB 1351 requires convicted sexual predators to report in-state travel; and HB 1455 establishes mandatory sentences for repeat offenders of sexual offenses. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX
CBS News
23-04-2025
- Business
- CBS News
Florida attorney general sues Snapchat, claims it's violating state's social media law
Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier has filed a lawsuit alleging that the operator of Snapchat is violating a high-profile 2024 law aimed at keeping children off some social media platforms. The lawsuit, filed Monday in Santa Rosa County circuit court, came after a federal judge last month rejected a request by tech industry groups for an injunction to block the law. In a federal-court filing Monday, attorneys for the state said Uthmeier "expects that additional investigations and enforcement actions will commence soon." The law (HB 3) seeks to prevent children under age 16 from opening social-media accounts on platforms that meet certain criteria — though it would allow parents to give consent for 14 and 15-year-olds to have accounts. Children under 14 could not open accounts. Supporters of the law have said it targets addictive features of social media platforms. That's a key argument in the lawsuit that Uthmeier filed Monday against Snap Inc., which operates Snapchat. "Despite being subject to HB 3, Snap contracts with and provides accounts to Florida users who it knows are younger than 14," the lawsuit said. "It also fails to seek parental consent before contracting with and providing accounts to Florida users who it knows are 14 or 15 years old. Snap is openly and knowingly violating HB 3, and each violation constitutes an unfair and deceptive trade practice under FDUTPA (a state law known as the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act)." The social media law, which was one of the biggest issues of the 2024 legislative session, did not name platforms that would be affected but included a definition of such platforms, with criteria related to such things as algorithms, addictive features and allowing users to view the content or activities of other users. The tech industry groups NetChoice and the Computer & Communications Industry Association filed a federal lawsuit last year alleging the law violates First Amendment rights. The groups have said in a federal court filing that it could affect Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, all of which are members of at least one of the groups. Florida social media law targets addictive features The lawsuit filed Monday in Santa Rosa County alleges that Snapchat meets criteria, such as having addictive features, that make it subject to the age restrictions in the law. For example, the lawsuit said Snapchat uses "push notifications" that appear on users' phone screens when they are not using the platform. "Push notifications exploit users' natural tendency to seek and attend to environmental feedback, serving as distractors that monopolize attention," the lawsuit said. "Young users are especially sensitive to these triggers and less able to control their response and resist reopening the app. Snapchat sends push notifications to users, regardless of age, frequently and at all hours of the day and night." As another example, the lawsuit pointed to Snapchat messages disappearing after certain amounts of time. "The disappearing nature of Snapchat content contributes to the app's harm to young people," the lawsuit said. "This aspect of Snapchat encourages users to open the app and keep coming back to it constantly, and it preys on minor users who are especially sensitive to a fear of missing content." The lawsuit seeks an order to stop Snapchat's alleged violations of the law and penalties up to $50,000 for each violation. Social media law faces legal challenge After the industry groups filed the federal court challenge last year, the state agreed to delay enforcing the law until Chief U.S. District Judge Mark Walker ruled on the groups' request for a preliminary injunction. Walker on March 13 turned down the injunction request, saying the groups had not shown they had legal standing to challenge the law. The groups filed a revised version of the challenge March 28 and are again seeking a preliminary injunction. "While states certainly have a legitimate interest in protecting minors who use such services, restricting the ability of minors (and adults) to access them altogether is not a narrowly tailored means of advancing any such interest," the groups' attorneys argued in one court document. "In a nation that values the First Amendment, the preferred response is to let parents decide what speech and mediums their minor children may access — including by utilizing the many available tools to monitor their activities on the internet. Like similar laws that have preceded it, HB 3 violates the First Amendment." The state's federal-court filing Monday said Uthmeier notified the groups after Walker's March 13 injunction ruling that he could move forward with enforcement of the law
Miami Herald
25-03-2025
- Business
- Miami Herald
Three South Florida movers will pay $3.8M for a ‘moving brokerage scheme,' state says
Three South Florida men who disguised their moving broker firms as actual moving companies have been kicked out of business and ordered to pay over $3.8 million. Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier's office announced the five judgments that did the above on Friday, two weeks after the largest and last judgment came down in a Broward County court. The money will come out of the pockets of Daniel Metz and Rudolph Rice of Coral Springs and Lake Worth Beach's Charles Abrams, the men accused of violating the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. 'Moving brokers are sales teams that book your move and sell it to an actual moving company,' the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration says on the 'Movers vs. Brokers' part of its website. 'A moving broker is not a mover. A broker does not assume responsibility for, and is not authorized to transport, your household goods. Brokers do not have moving trucks or professional movers.' According to Uthmeier's office, Abrams, Metz and Rice portrayed their companies as the ones doing the heavy lifting of furniture and goods. But, they were just brokers, throwing out low quotes, snagging the deposits, then outsourcing the work to other movers without customers' knowledge. The actual movers then might make their own demands for payment. READ MORE: A $60,000 judgment Florida mover Shawn Thompson, accused of fraud and extortion 'The companies serially changed names when bad reviews made it difficult to attract new customers,' the attorney general's office said in its release. In addition to Gold Standard Moving, based in a Lauderhill office building, the trio used Southeast Holding, based out of Abrams' house; Executive Van Lines, based in a St. Petersburg office building; Imperial Moving Group doing business as Simple Van Lines, out of a Boca Raton strip mall; National American Van Lines, out of Lauderdale by the Sea; and Razor Van Lines, Spartan Moving and Storage, Southeast Holdings, United American Moving and US Pro Moving and Logistics, all in offices at Pompano Beach's Palm Aire Plaza, 2700 W. Atlantic Blvd. (Palm Aire Plaza's the same strip mall from which Johanna Garcia ran the $200 million MJ Capital fraud.) READ MORE: A list of the companies used by a Florida mover with a record of fraud and extortion Punishment and payments The judgments' permanent injunctions bans Abrams, Rice and Metz from having anything to do with any business or person 'that provides a service as a household moving broker.' As for how much this will cost the men and their companies... National American Van Lines: $65,000 in restitution, $10,000 in penalty. Daniel Metz: $202,208 for 'consumer relief.' Rudolph Rice: $89,915 for 'consumer relief.' Imperial Moving Group or Simple Path Moving: $20,000 for 'consumer relief.' Charles Abrams: $400,000 for 'consumer relief.' Gold Standard Moving; Executive Van Lines; Razor Van Lines; Spartan Moving and Storage; Southeast Holding; Southeast Holdings; United American Moving and US Pro Moving and Logistics: $1,519,000 for 'corporate consumer relief' and $1.5 million in penalty.
