Sex offenders will get a ‘red letter’ on dating apps under CA bill

The bill to protect people on online dating apps from violence has critics who say the measure will red flag certain users.

But that’s a feature, not a bug in the proposal.

This week, the Senate Public Safety Committee passed a bill that would require online dating services to conduct criminal background checks on users in California. If the user is a registered sex offender or has been convicted of a felony, domestic violence, assault, or hate crime, the dating service must “put up a flag” on the profile to let others know.

Bill author Sen. Caroline Menjivar said that “dating apps have not provided an adequate level of safety for their users”. At the hearing, she cited 2019 Colombian Investigative Journalism study that found more than a third of women surveyed said they had been sexually assaulted or raped by someone they met on a dating app.

The Markup, which is part of CalMatters, published an investigation last year that showed people accused of sexual assault managed to stay in the apps even after victims have reported them.

• MenjivarVan Nuys Democrat: “If women, mostly women, continue to be raped or killed — like another woman (who was killed and her body was set on fire last year after a man met her on a dating app – these are the incidents we strive to prevent.

But beyond labeling users with a “red letter,” implementing the policy would require dating platforms to collect a significant amount of personal data to avoid misidentifying users, said Jose Torres, deputy executive director of industry group TechNet.

In a rare break with his Democratic colleagues, Sen. Scott Wiener of San Francisco voted against the bill, saying it could have “significant unintended consequences to people’s privacy.” But Wiener’s opposition, along with Republican Sen. Kelly Sejarto of Murrieta, was not enough to stop the bill from making it out of the six-member committee, according to the CalMatters Digital Democracy database.

After four Democratic lawmakers gave the go-ahead, Menjivar said he plans to change the measure in response to criticism related to the crime categories and operational challenges — and that lawmakers “will see a dramatically different bill” when it goes before the privacy committee on April 20.

Although U.S. Rep. Eric Swwell’s exit from the gubernatorial race narrowed the crowded Democratic field by one, the party remains concerned that not yet rallied behind a central figure to win the racewrites Maya S. Miller of CalMatters.

With less than three weeks to go before ballots are mailed out, there are seven top contenders left to split the Democratic vote. And major party figures, including Gov. Gavin Newsom and U.S. House Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi, have refused to tip their thumbs by endorsing a candidate.

That led Democratic Party Chairman Rusty Hicks to face criticism from party members who said he was not using his position to thin the herd.

• RL Millerlong-time delegate and chairman of the party’s environmental group: “It was incredibly disappointing … I really believe there was a failure of leadership at the top.”

But Hicks says he’s “doing whatever it takes” to make sure a Democrat wins the race. In March, he wrote an open letter urging candidates to drop out if they “don’t have a viable path” to the general election.

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Ticketmaster’s support for two bills designed to curb high ticket resale prices has critics skeptical that the measures will ultimately help the ticketing giant kill his competitionCayla Mihalovich of CalMatters reports.

The Legislature is currently considering two bills that would put a 10% ceiling about how much distributors can overcharge ticket prices and ban distributors from selling tickets they don’t own yet.

Ticketmaster’s parent company, Live Nation, supports the bills, raising alarm among critics who include ticket resale companies like Seatgeek and Stubhub, but also the California Consumers Federation

Resale companies spend as if their business depends on it. Three of them have racked up $1.1 million in lobbying expenses this legislative session as the proposals move forward.

• Jack SternHead of Political Communications at StubHub: “Passing laws that give more power to the Ticketmaster monopoly and don’t actually make tickets more affordable is the last thing California’s leaders should be doing.”

In a statement to CalMatters, Live Nation said its support for the measures is not about any monopoly, but instead about “protecting fans from scalpers.”

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