Committee adopts substitute and backs data-portability bill to let Utahns move social media data across platforms

A House committee unanimously adopted a first substitute to HB 4 18 and gave the bill a favorable recommendation to the House floor. The legislation — described by supporters as the Digital Choice Act — would require platforms to allow users to port public social data and to enable interoperability among social apps, while preserving existing privacy safeguards for non-public data.

Sponsor Representative Feofia (listed in the transcript as the bill sponsor) framed the legislation as a consumer-rights and competition measure: "Utahans have the ability to take their data with them," the sponsor said, adding the bill "puts users back in the driver's seat." The sponsor highlighted earlier Utah legislation on privacy and minors and said HB 4 18 builds on that framework.

Technology and policy witnesses described existing protocols and implementation paths. Matthew Lipka of Project Liberty described an open protocol known as the Decentralized Social Networking Protocol (DSNP) and said the bill does not force adoption of any specific protocol. He testified that "the technology exists to implement interoperability safely and cost effectively" and that several interoperable services already operate at scale.

Margaret Bussey, Executive Director of the Utah Department of Commerce, told the committee the department had worked with the attorney general's office on the bill language and that Utah's prior steps on privacy and social media regulation make the state well prepared to defend the legislation if challenged. She said the state was the recipient of prior litigation related to social media regulation and had prepared for legal pushback.

Public witnesses — including founders of a Utah startup (TrendApp), creators, an author and researchers — urged passage. Joel Otterstrip, founder of TrendApp, said the bill would "enable us to work with partners who can then integrate with us" and make it easier for startups to scale. Social psychologist Ravi Iyer (on behalf of the authors of The Anxious Generation) and others described harms to youth and argued that portability and choice would let families and children move away from platforms with higher rates of harmful content.

The committee first adopted the first substitute by voice vote and then took a favorable recommendation on the substitute; the chair recorded the favorably recommendation as passing unanimously.

Ending: The committee advanced the bill with a favorable recommendation; the transcript records unanimous committee action on the substitute but does not list a numerical roll call for the final recommendation.