Committee advances data‑portability bill after tech‑policy debate

Representative Fea, the bill sponsor, told the committee HB 408 updates the social media data portability law passed last year to make it more workable for industry while strengthening user control. "Your social media data belongs to you," Fea said, listing three main changes: letting users choose which portions of their data to move, adding timeline clarity for transfers and a narrow safe harbor for temporary technical disruptions.

Several committee members pressed the sponsor on whether the bill effectively mandates system architectures or forces platforms to adopt particular open protocols. Senator Johnson said he feared the bill "dictates core software architectures" and raised concerns about expanded security risk and the state regulating product design. Fea replied that the bill does not mandate a single protocol and compared portability to telecom number portability, arguing state action can spur competition and that industry had helped craft technical changes.

Zach Boyd of the Office of AI Policy and a public commenter with engineering experience described the technical feasibility and supported the view that an interoperable data object could be transferred with field mapping. Salida Thurber, a former developer, told the committee that the underlying data structures (JSON objects) transfer readily and supported the bill.

After debate over whether the measure belongs at the state level and concerns about potential federal preemption and competitive effect, Senator Kwan moved to favorably recommend the bill. The committee recorded a 3–1 vote in favor of recommending HB 408 to the full Senate.

The bill's sponsor said the changes were intended to be workable for both industry and users; opponents urged caution about state‑level technical mandates. The next step is consideration of HB 408 by the full Senate.