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Rep. Angela Arsenal proposes registry for social media and AI companies to aid enforcement
Summary
Representative Angela Arsenal asked the committee to consider a registry (H365) that would require social media and AI companies doing business in Vermont to register and attest they follow state standards (age-appropriate design, limits on dark patterns, data-use safeguards) to make enforcement and oversight easier.
Representative Angela Arsenal presented H365 to the House Commerce & Economic Development Committee on April 1, proposing a registry for social media and AI companies that do business in Vermont.
Arsenal said the registry would be a proactive tool to identify companies operating in the state, require them to attest to a set of consumer-protection standards (mirroring elements in proposed data-privacy and age-appropriate design bills) and provide an enforcement mechanism beyond waiting for harms to occur. Companies would register with the Secretary of State and pay a nominal annual fee; Arsenal described $100 as an example in the draft.
The registry proposal would require registrants to abide by standards such as prohibiting dark-pattern designs that manipulate users, limiting data-sharing to what is necessary, preserving physical ID options if mobile IDs are adopted, and complying with age-appropriate design expectations for products likely accessed by children. Arsenal cited research and policy papers — including a National Education Policy Center paper about AI in schools — and said many AI tools are embedded in products that schools and families use without recognizing the underlying technology.
Arsenal framed the registry as a building block to enable enforcement of other consumer-protection laws and to create transparency about which companies are operating in state markets. Committee members discussed enforcement, penalties for noncompliance, geofencing and whether an unregistered company should be allowed to do business in Vermont; Arsenal said drafting details and penalty structures would be committee work.
Arsenal also tied the registry concept to complementary proposals such as a kids’ code (age-appropriate design), a data privacy bill, and measures to limit phones in schools, describing the suite of bills as “layers” of mitigation.
No committee action was taken on the registry during the hearing; Arsenal invited follow-up conversations and said she would provide additional materials.
