On Wednesday night, the Utah Legislature passed a bill establishing a precedent between Big Tech and its users in Utah.
HB418 grants users the right to own, control and manage their data, ultimately changing the business dynamic between users, advertisers and platform owners.
It “ensures that users can permanently delete their information,” the bill’s floor sponsor, Majority Assistant Whip Sen. Michael Mckell, R-Spanish Fork, said during the Senate vote on Wednesday. “This turns users into customers instead of products.”
McKell noted that social media companies have prioritized monetizing personal data by designing their platforms to maximize ad revenue rather than enhance user experience. He argued that when users can move their data freely, platforms must compete for ad dollars and user trust, safety and satisfaction.
Though the bill passed, Sen. John Johnson, R-North Ogden, opposed HB418, arguing against government-impose regulations, emphasizing a concern in harming business by limiting data access and potentially pushing social media companies away from Utah.
“Utah actually prides itself on being friendly to business, but now we want to put up barriers,” he said. “Here’s what I believe is going to happen with this, and that is that that all of a sudden, Facebook and others are going to decide just to firewall off Utah because they cannot meet this interoperability requirement that you’re setting up for them. I think that’s a barrier to business. I think it’s bad business.”
However, the bill’s sponsor, Rep. Doug Fiefia, R-Herriman, told the Deseret News that six states are closely watching what becomes of this bill. “Utah is leading the nation with this legislation,” he said. “As more people demand transparency and control over their data, we hope to see this movement grow nationwide.”
“This was a bipartisan effort because ensuring individuals — not corporations — have the final say over their personal information is not a partisan issue,” he added. “I’m proud of the work we’ve done, and I appreciate the overwhelming support from my colleagues on both sides of the aisle. This is about protecting Utahns and ensuring that they — not big tech companies — decide how their data is used.”
Protecting against online harms
The legislature isn’t the only government body advocating against the harm social media poses to users, particularly minors. Utah Gov. Spencer Cox and the Attorney General’s Office, led by Derek Brown, have remained vigilant in holding social media platforms like TikTok accountable.
Last year, the Utah Division of Consumer Protection filed a complaint against the video-sharing platform, accusing them of knowingly allowing minors to be sexually exploited on their live stream feature.
“TikTok’s design tactics encourage and allow it to profit from crime and the sexual exploitation of children,” the suit states. “These deceptive and unconscionable practices violate Utah’s Consumer Sales Practices Act and harm Utah’s consumers.”
In January, the United States Supreme Court cleared the path for a ban on TikTok, deciding that a policy mandating the app’s ownership change does not violate free speech rights. The app, owned by ByteDance, a private Chinese company, was banned in the country for less than 24 hours on Jan. 18.
In a recent Deseret News/Hinckley Institute of Politics poll conducted by HarrisX, 805 Uthans were asked whether or not they support the U.S. Supreme Court upholding the congressional ban on TikTok.
More supported it than opposed it.
Republican voters (30%) were also slightly more likely than Democrat voters (24%) to strongly support the decision. The poll, conducted from Feb. 18 to 25, has a margin of error of +/—3.5 percentage points.
Although the app is available for download again across all platforms in the U.S., the Trump administration continues to advocate for a deal that would put the platform under U.S. control, preventing foreign entities from accessing American user data.