CA’s New Crypto Business Laws, AI Bills in MI & More

CA Enacts Measures Regulating Crypto Businesses

California Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed legislation (AB 39) requiring “digital financial assets businesses” to be licensed by the state. The governor also signed a measure (SB 401) prohibiting “digital financial asset transaction kiosks” from accepting or dispensing over $1,000 per customer per day. (PLURIBUS NEWS)

MI Bills Target AI in Political Ads

Michigan’s House Committee on Elections advanced a bipartisan package of legislation (HB 5141, HB 5142, HB 5143 and HB 5144) addressing the use of AI-generated content in political campaign ads. The measures would require AI images advertising federal, state or local candidates and ballot questions to disclose the use of AI with text on the screen and require AI-generated video and audio clips to begin or end with a three-second disclosure. (MLIVE, STATE NET)

NY AG Probes Social Media Companies about Response to Hamas-Israel Conflict

New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) sent letters to Google, Meta, Reddit, Rumble, TikTok and X requesting detailed information from them about how they are addressing threats of violence against Jewish and Muslim people on their platforms in the wake of the Hamas attack on Israel. Meta said it had flagged or removed roughly 800,000 posts that violated its community standards. (PLURIBUS NEWS)

FCC Begins Process of Reinstating Net Neutrality

The Federal Communications Commission voted last week to begin the process of reestablishing the net neutrality rules requiring internet service providers to treat all traffic the same. The rules, initially put in place in 2015, were reversed in 2017. The agency will solicit feedback from the public before drafting its final rules. (CNBC)

CA Appeals Decision Blocking New Child Online Safety Law

California AG Rob Bonta (D) asked the Ninth Circuit to review the recent ruling by U.S. District Judge Beth Labson temporarily blocking implementation of the state’s groundbreaking new law requiring social media platforms to do more to protect young users. On Sept. 18 Freeman granted the preliminary injunction requested by tech trade group NetChoice LLC, saying the group was “likely to succeed” with its challenge to the law on First Amendment grounds. (LAW360)

SEC Inaction on Grayscale Ruling Suggests Bitcoin ETF Approvals May Be Coming Soon

The passage of a deadline last week for the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to challenge a ruling from the D.C. Circuit overturning its rejection of Grayscale Investments’ spot bitcoin ETF proposal without a request from the SEC for a rehearing suggests the agency may be preparing to approve the bitcoin ETF applications it has received from Grayscale and others, including BlackRock and Fidelity. The agency is likely to approve all of those applications at the same time to avoid giving any applicant the advantage of being first to market. (LAW360)

NM Gov Pushes for EVs

New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham (D) issued an executive order directing state agencies to shift to an all-electric vehicle fleet—with the exception of law enforcement, firefighting and some heavy-duty vehicles—by 2035. The governor also said she will push for tax credits for new and used electric vehicles in the next legislative session to help meet the state’s climate goals. (ASSOCIATED PRESS)

—Compiled by SNCJ Managing Editor KOREY CLARK