A new California bill targeting Internet “bots”—short for robots that post retweets or do other automatic tasks on the worldwide web—sounds like a simple way to deal with the sometimes irksome automated accounts that can spread misinformation in the guise of media campaigns. But the legislation could wreak havoc on the internet, where around 52 percent of all traffic is generated in some way or another in this bot-based manner.
California’s Legislature is known for its grand intentions, so this kind of bill is nothing new. But we all should be concerned when state lawmakers—who seem incapable of even fixing the state’s most basic problems, such as underfunded pensions, decrepit infrastructure and the troubled education system—start tinkering with something as complex and fundamental as the internet, writes Steven Greenhut.
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