Existing law prohibits a person, firm, corporation or association, or any employee thereof, from making or disseminating in any advertising device, or in any manner or means whatever, including over the Internet, any statement concerning real or personal property or services, which services that is untrue or misleading, as specified.
This bill would prohibit an operator of a social media Internet Web site with a physical presence in California from engaging in the sale of advertising with a computer software account or user that performs an
automated task, and that is not verified by the operator as being controlled by a natural person. The bill would require an operator of a social media Internet Web site with a physical presence in California to verify whether an account or profile it hosts on its Internet Web site is being controlled by a computer software account or user that performs an automated task, and if so, to prominently indicate that to users of its site. The bill would require an operator of a social media Internet Web site with a physical presence in California to require an account or profile it hosts on its Internet Web site that it identifies as being controlled by a computer software account or user that performs an automated task to be linked to a natural person.