5 ms·

NY Senate introduces bill to mandate open API access for social media platforms

61 points by mysweetmisery 3y ago

danaris 3y ago
Honestly, this could, if designed and implemented correctly, be exactly what we need to break the stranglehold the current social media giants have on the industry. Having public APIs for every major social media platform means that, at least in theory, a single third-party app could give you access to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Reddit (plus more!). It could even give you access to your social media contacts aggregated across all those platforms. This would mean that if one of your friends wanted to move from platform A to platform B, as long as you had at least some account with both of them, you wouldn't have to change much about how you communicate with them. It could also mean that social media services would have the ability to tap into each other's APIs—thus making it possible to simply import your entire contact list and history (or as much of it as the destination service supported) from one service to another. If we could get an effort like this to fully succeed, it could very well bring us to something much closer to the decentralized social media future that some people were talking about several years ago.
mysweetmisery 3y ago
https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36331361 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36331361
dale_glass 3y ago
Well! This is an interesting wrinkle in the Reddit drama.
- upupnaway 3y ago
  Bad day for reddit.
  - ASalazarMX 3y ago
    Making a Reddit will be added to the dictionaries after this.
- asdff 3y ago
  I wonder how many of the app devs were writing to their senators?
smoldesu 3y ago
Well, this will die quickly. It would be nice to see people rally around something like this for mobile phone APIs though.
- mysweetmisery 3y ago
  This bill may not address mobile phone APIs directly, it does contribute to the broader conversation about API accessibility and enabling users to have more control and influence in the digital world.
  - smoldesu 3y ago
    It sorta poisons the discussion, though. Mobile phone and desktop APIs are marginal-cost to call if you own the hardware it runs on. Social media APIs have an inherent cost associated with maintaining the endpoints and returning values quickly. For sites like Twitter and Reddit, that price is non-negligible enough that it has to be recouped somehow. Overall it just feels like more pearls before swine. I don't mind it starting the discussion, but it feels like a poor way of framing it, to the point that it dooms everything to fail on the basis that "it costs too much".
williamcotton 3y ago
The NY Senate should instead introduce a bill to create a public platform for topical discussion!
- ASalazarMX 3y ago
  Since government institutions can't censor speech, that would be an interesting thing to moderate.
  - lostmsu 3y ago
    You can always moderate by attaching tags to posts, and allow viewers to choose which tags they don't want to see. You can even have per-moderator tags. E.g. mod123:spam. And then let user filter by tag wildcard or something similar: *:spam.
  - williamcotton 3y ago
    What about third-party services that offer moderation? And then the adventurous could browse the raw stream!
- rektide 3y ago
  I definitely feel like - at some point - governments have to start actively helping speech. Rather than regulate the market, having official registries for people to file their speech in certain ly seems like one path. Ideally where we can file our own moderation opinions which can be used as moderation overlays folks can use to filter things down with.
tomrod 3y ago
I wonder if interstate commerce applies here.
LinuxBender 3y ago
Application: The bill does not apply to social media companies with less than $100 million in gross revenue or to services with limited user interactions like direct messages, commercial transactions, or reviews. That was going to be my first question. Nice to see it would not affect my silly little forum and chat servers. It looks like Discord meets the criteria would be subjected to this however.
- TechBro8615 3y ago
  Well, Your Honor, Facebook the social media site is actually owned by Facebook Limited, an Irish company owned by a British trust with shareholders consisting of Meta Limited (Hong Kong) and Meta Limited (Seychelles). Believe it or not, Facebook actually loses money! The distantly related company of Meta Inc (owned by Meta Limited (Ireland)), does make some money from advertising, but it pays Facebook Limited a recurring subscription of $99 million per annum for a royalty-free, exclusive license to its newsfeed API. So we're sorry, Your Honor, but New York courts have no jurisdiction here, and even if they did, the plaintiffs are wrong to assert that "Facebook" makes more than $100 million in annual revenue.
- professorsnep 3y ago
  Discord has one of the better APIs out there for social media, and is definitely free of charge.
  - deleted 3y ago
    [deleted]
Havoc 3y ago
Doubt it'll see the light of day, but it may widen the debate further which would be a win
ccheney 3y ago
Any mirror? Edit: The Bill https://legislation.nysenate.gov/pdf/bills/2023/S6686 https://legislation.nysenate.gov/pdf/bills/2023/S6686 gpt-4 summary: The bill, numbered 6686, was introduced by Sen. Hoylman-Sigal and is related to social media open application programming. The bill proposes amendments to the general business law, specifically introducing a new article 42 titled "Social Media Open Application Programming Interface Access". The article includes sections defining terms, requirements for open API access with social media for third-party development tools, API access reports, violations and remedies, and application of the law. Key points from the bill include: Social media platforms are required to implement and maintain a standards-based API that permits third-party applications to retrieve data at no cost, for the benefit of the user or the user's authorized representative. The bill outlines the type of data that must be provided to users or their authorized representatives through the API. This includes personal data controlled by the social media platform, platform-produced or recommended data available to the user, and data that is generally available to all account holders about the user's friends or followers. Social media platforms must conduct routine testing, ongoing monitoring, and make all necessary updates to ensure the API functions properly. The bill also outlines circumstances under which a social media platform may deny or discontinue a user or authorized representative's application's access to the API. Social media companies are required to submit semiannual API access reports to the attorney general. These reports should include information on API utilization and access decisions.
wayne 3y ago
Isn't Facebook API access what led directly to Cambridge Analytica?
- touwer 3y ago
  Unlimited API access maybe
exabrial 3y ago
This is a dumb overreaction. Before Reddit there was forums. Before forums there was mailing lists. Before mailing lists there was usenet. Before usenet there was dial up bbs. I missed a few. Hopefully even if this passes it’ll just die in the courts. Instead lets let the free market sort the best thing out instead of pretending that Reddit is doing something impossibly valuable.
- orangepurple 3y ago
  A small band of rebels still use Gopher and its so-called modern spiritual successor Gemini (no, not the crypto scam) https://gemini.circumlunar.space/ https://gemini.circumlunar.space/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_(protocol) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_(protocol)
- pieresqi 3y ago
  [dead]
DropInIn 3y ago
Yea, because those is what they should be focused on /s
asah 3y ago
please click "aye" on the right side to support this! and then write a little message. This actually makes a difference. https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2023/S6686 https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2023/S6686
s1artibartfast 3y ago
I don't think this is reasonable or even in users interest if they stop and think about it. I don't want social media platforms to be required by law to turn over all of the data that they have collected on me to anyone who asks. EDIT: So in section 2.A.3, anything that could be publicly visible to third parties is now accessible to those thirds parties via API. Anything you privately shared with third parties is now accessible to them via API. Your public comments, likes, friends ect. Alternatively, your private messages can be exported via API if the recipient gives permission. >2. A SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM MUST PROVIDE THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION TO ITS CURRENT USERS OR THEIR AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVES THROUGH THE API CONSISTENT WITH SUBDIVISION ONE OF THIS SECTION: (A) THE USER'S PERSONAL DATA THAT THE SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM CONTROLS, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION: ... (III) THIRD-PARTY DATA WHICH IS EITHER (A) GENERALLY AVAILABLE TO ALL ACCOUNT HOLDERS, OR (B) MADE AVAILABLE TO THE USER BY THE ACTION OF THAT THIRD PARTY, AND WHICH IS COLLECTED BY THE SOCIAL MEDIA COMPANY TO MAKE CONTENT DECISIONS THAT DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY IMPACT A USER It is hard to believe I am reading section 3.A correct, but this would also require the social media company to update their database at the request of the API user. pretty wild. >3. A SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM MUST PROVIDE ACCESS THROUGH THE API NECES- SARY TO ALLOW THIRD-PARTY APPLICATIONS ON BEHALF OF ANY CURRENT USER TO WRITE, UPDATE OR TAKE ACTION ON: (A) THE USER'S PERSONAL DATA THAT THE SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM CONTROLS, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION: (I) DATA THAT IS GENERALLY AVAILABLE TO ALL ACCOUNT HOLDERS, INCLUDING USER'S NAME, USERNAME OR HANDLE, PROFILE PHOTO, BIO, AND LOCATION; (II) USER DATA AND DATA GENERATED BY A USER AND COLLECTED BY THE SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM THAT FORMS THE BASIS FOR SOCIAL RECOMMENDATIONS, INCLUDING USER FOLLOWS AND FOLLOWER DATA, AS WELL AS THE TOPICS USERS MAY FOLLOW; So in theory, anyone could make an API request to reddit and it would have to turn over all public information on the site, at no cost.
- danaris 3y ago
  That...doesn't say what you are claiming it says. Clause 2 requires the API to allow access to a user's data by that user or someone they authorize. Sure, there's a reasonable concern about coerced authorization by third parties, but that's a separate problem, and not worse than what we have now. Clause 3 isn't quite as explicitly narrow, but it still specifies being able to access the listed data on behalf of a current user. Neither of these are saying "anyone can access all the data." They're saying "anyone can access their own data". > this would also require the social media company to update their database at the request of the API user. And this is pretty obviously required in order for the API to allow third party apps that are more than read-only. "Updating their database" is necessary to make posts, react to posts, or change your profile information.
sys_64738 3y ago
What is the precise definition of a social media platform?
reptos 3y ago
[dead]
aaomidi 3y ago
This is a genius idea. I completely support it.

61 points by mysweetmisery 3y ago

Honestly, this could, if designed and implemented correctly, be exactly what we need to break the stranglehold the current social media giants have on the industry. Having public APIs for every major social media platform means that, at least in theory, a single third-party app could give you access to Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Reddit (plus more!). It could even give you access to your social media contacts aggregated across all those platforms. This would mean that if one of your friends wanted to move from platform A to platform B, as long as you had at least some account with both of them, you wouldn't have to change much about how you communicate with them. It could also mean that social media services would have the ability to tap into each other's APIs—thus making it possible to simply import your entire contact list and history (or as much of it as the destination service supported) from one service to another. If we could get an effort like this to fully succeed, it could very well bring us to something much closer to the decentralized social media future that some people were talking about several years ago.

mysweetmisery 3y ago

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36331361 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=36331361

dale_glass 3y ago

Well! This is an interesting wrinkle in the Reddit drama.

upupnaway 3y ago
Bad day for reddit.
- ASalazarMX 3y ago
  Making a Reddit will be added to the dictionaries after this.
asdff 3y ago
I wonder how many of the app devs were writing to their senators?

smoldesu 3y ago

Well, this will die quickly. It would be nice to see people rally around something like this for mobile phone APIs though.

mysweetmisery 3y ago
This bill may not address mobile phone APIs directly, it does contribute to the broader conversation about API accessibility and enabling users to have more control and influence in the digital world.
- smoldesu 3y ago
  It sorta poisons the discussion, though. Mobile phone and desktop APIs are marginal-cost to call if you own the hardware it runs on. Social media APIs have an inherent cost associated with maintaining the endpoints and returning values quickly. For sites like Twitter and Reddit, that price is non-negligible enough that it has to be recouped somehow. Overall it just feels like more pearls before swine. I don't mind it starting the discussion, but it feels like a poor way of framing it, to the point that it dooms everything to fail on the basis that "it costs too much".

williamcotton 3y ago

The NY Senate should instead introduce a bill to create a public platform for topical discussion!

ASalazarMX 3y ago
Since government institutions can't censor speech, that would be an interesting thing to moderate.
- lostmsu 3y ago
  You can always moderate by attaching tags to posts, and allow viewers to choose which tags they don't want to see. You can even have per-moderator tags. E.g. mod123:spam. And then let user filter by tag wildcard or something similar: *:spam.
- williamcotton 3y ago
  What about third-party services that offer moderation? And then the adventurous could browse the raw stream!
rektide 3y ago
I definitely feel like - at some point - governments have to start actively helping speech. Rather than regulate the market, having official registries for people to file their speech in certain ly seems like one path. Ideally where we can file our own moderation opinions which can be used as moderation overlays folks can use to filter things down with.

tomrod 3y ago

I wonder if interstate commerce applies here.

LinuxBender 3y ago

Application: The bill does not apply to social media companies with less than $100 million in gross revenue or to services with limited user interactions like direct messages, commercial transactions, or reviews. That was going to be my first question. Nice to see it would not affect my silly little forum and chat servers. It looks like Discord meets the criteria would be subjected to this however.

TechBro8615 3y ago
Well, Your Honor, Facebook the social media site is actually owned by Facebook Limited, an Irish company owned by a British trust with shareholders consisting of Meta Limited (Hong Kong) and Meta Limited (Seychelles). Believe it or not, Facebook actually loses money! The distantly related company of Meta Inc (owned by Meta Limited (Ireland)), does make some money from advertising, but it pays Facebook Limited a recurring subscription of $99 million per annum for a royalty-free, exclusive license to its newsfeed API. So we're sorry, Your Honor, but New York courts have no jurisdiction here, and even if they did, the plaintiffs are wrong to assert that "Facebook" makes more than $100 million in annual revenue.
professorsnep 3y ago
Discord has one of the better APIs out there for social media, and is definitely free of charge.
- deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]

Havoc 3y ago

Doubt it'll see the light of day, but it may widen the debate further which would be a win

ccheney 3y ago

Any mirror? Edit: The Bill https://legislation.nysenate.gov/pdf/bills/2023/S6686 https://legislation.nysenate.gov/pdf/bills/2023/S6686 gpt-4 summary: The bill, numbered 6686, was introduced by Sen. Hoylman-Sigal and is related to social media open application programming. The bill proposes amendments to the general business law, specifically introducing a new article 42 titled "Social Media Open Application Programming Interface Access". The article includes sections defining terms, requirements for open API access with social media for third-party development tools, API access reports, violations and remedies, and application of the law. Key points from the bill include: Social media platforms are required to implement and maintain a standards-based API that permits third-party applications to retrieve data at no cost, for the benefit of the user or the user's authorized representative. The bill outlines the type of data that must be provided to users or their authorized representatives through the API. This includes personal data controlled by the social media platform, platform-produced or recommended data available to the user, and data that is generally available to all account holders about the user's friends or followers. Social media platforms must conduct routine testing, ongoing monitoring, and make all necessary updates to ensure the API functions properly. The bill also outlines circumstances under which a social media platform may deny or discontinue a user or authorized representative's application's access to the API. Social media companies are required to submit semiannual API access reports to the attorney general. These reports should include information on API utilization and access decisions.

wayne 3y ago

Isn't Facebook API access what led directly to Cambridge Analytica?

touwer 3y ago
Unlimited API access maybe

exabrial 3y ago

This is a dumb overreaction. Before Reddit there was forums. Before forums there was mailing lists. Before mailing lists there was usenet. Before usenet there was dial up bbs. I missed a few. Hopefully even if this passes it’ll just die in the courts. Instead lets let the free market sort the best thing out instead of pretending that Reddit is doing something impossibly valuable.

orangepurple 3y ago
A small band of rebels still use Gopher and its so-called modern spiritual successor Gemini (no, not the crypto scam) https://gemini.circumlunar.space/ https://gemini.circumlunar.space/ https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_(protocol) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gemini_(protocol)
pieresqi 3y ago
[dead]

DropInIn 3y ago

Yea, because those is what they should be focused on /s

asah 3y ago

please click "aye" on the right side to support this! and then write a little message. This actually makes a difference. https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2023/S6686 https://www.nysenate.gov/legislation/bills/2023/S6686

s1artibartfast 3y ago

I don't think this is reasonable or even in users interest if they stop and think about it. I don't want social media platforms to be required by law to turn over all of the data that they have collected on me to anyone who asks. EDIT: So in section 2.A.3, anything that could be publicly visible to third parties is now accessible to those thirds parties via API. Anything you privately shared with third parties is now accessible to them via API. Your public comments, likes, friends ect. Alternatively, your private messages can be exported via API if the recipient gives permission. >2. A SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM MUST PROVIDE THE FOLLOWING INFORMATION TO ITS CURRENT USERS OR THEIR AUTHORIZED REPRESENTATIVES THROUGH THE API CONSISTENT WITH SUBDIVISION ONE OF THIS SECTION: (A) THE USER'S PERSONAL DATA THAT THE SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM CONTROLS, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION: ... (III) THIRD-PARTY DATA WHICH IS EITHER (A) GENERALLY AVAILABLE TO ALL ACCOUNT HOLDERS, OR (B) MADE AVAILABLE TO THE USER BY THE ACTION OF THAT THIRD PARTY, AND WHICH IS COLLECTED BY THE SOCIAL MEDIA COMPANY TO MAKE CONTENT DECISIONS THAT DIRECTLY OR INDIRECTLY IMPACT A USER It is hard to believe I am reading section 3.A correct, but this would also require the social media company to update their database at the request of the API user. pretty wild. >3. A SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM MUST PROVIDE ACCESS THROUGH THE API NECES- SARY TO ALLOW THIRD-PARTY APPLICATIONS ON BEHALF OF ANY CURRENT USER TO WRITE, UPDATE OR TAKE ACTION ON: (A) THE USER'S PERSONAL DATA THAT THE SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM CONTROLS, INCLUDING, WITHOUT LIMITATION: (I) DATA THAT IS GENERALLY AVAILABLE TO ALL ACCOUNT HOLDERS, INCLUDING USER'S NAME, USERNAME OR HANDLE, PROFILE PHOTO, BIO, AND LOCATION; (II) USER DATA AND DATA GENERATED BY A USER AND COLLECTED BY THE SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM THAT FORMS THE BASIS FOR SOCIAL RECOMMENDATIONS, INCLUDING USER FOLLOWS AND FOLLOWER DATA, AS WELL AS THE TOPICS USERS MAY FOLLOW; So in theory, anyone could make an API request to reddit and it would have to turn over all public information on the site, at no cost.

danaris 3y ago
That...doesn't say what you are claiming it says. Clause 2 requires the API to allow access to a user's data by that user or someone they authorize. Sure, there's a reasonable concern about coerced authorization by third parties, but that's a separate problem, and not worse than what we have now. Clause 3 isn't quite as explicitly narrow, but it still specifies being able to access the listed data on behalf of a current user. Neither of these are saying "anyone can access all the data." They're saying "anyone can access their own data". > this would also require the social media company to update their database at the request of the API user. And this is pretty obviously required in order for the API to allow third party apps that are more than read-only. "Updating their database" is necessary to make posts, react to posts, or change your profile information.

sys_64738 3y ago

What is the precise definition of a social media platform?

reptos 3y ago

[dead]

aaomidi 3y ago

This is a genius idea. I completely support it.