- Florida has rejected a bill to require mandatory encryption back doors to social media
- Using social media from minor Bill was “indefinitely postponed and withdrawn from consideration” on 3rd May 2025
- Privacy experts have criticized the proposal strongly and warned that it would have made young people less secure instead
Florida has finally rejected a bill that would have required mandatory encryption back doors for all social media platforms that allow minors to open an account.
Ticket to “social media for minors” came as a way to improve children’s security online and also included obligations to prevent minors from using fleeting messaging features while providing their activities and legal guardians’ full access to their activities and legal guardians. Still, privacy experts have strongly criticized the proposal and warned that it would have made young people less secure instead.
On May 3, 2025, the bill “indefinitely was postponed and withdrawn from consideration”, “ As indicated on the official Florida -Senate Website.
“A Victory for Privacy”
Encryption is the technology used by secure messaging apps and the best VPN services to keep users’ online activities private.
Signal, WhatsApp, iMessage and Instagram use end-to-end encryption to spice up all messages leaving a device in an unreal form to prevent unauthorized access.
However, Florida legislators wanted to force social media platforms “to provide a mechanism to decrypt end-to-end encryption when law enforcement achieves an arrest warrant or a subpoena.”
Still, experts have long warned that it is impossible to create an encryption back door that only law enforcement can utilize, de facto undermines a crucial security function for everyone.
Despite the Senate voting for the “Social Media Social Media Bill from Minor” Bill (SB 868/HB 743) to pass, Florida’s Representan House blocked May 3.
Failure to attract support from both legislative chambers means that the proposal did not adopt and was prevented from being allowed.
Update 5 May 2025: In a privacy and encryption victory, Florida legislation ended its regular 2025 -Session on May 2nd without passing SB 868/HB 743. Https://t.co/jxawoexdug5 May 2025
“In a privacy victory and encryption, Florida legislation ended its regular 2025 session on May 2nd without passing SB 868 / HB 743,” Commented Digital Rights Group The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) Decsion in a Tweet on May 5.
Experts at EFF have previously considered the proposal “dangerous and mute” that argued how legislators “asked for the impossible” – an encryption back door only for minors that only good guys would have been able to use.
This is not the first time that a similar bill did not receive the necessary majority to become law around the world.
In Europe, for example, France rejected the controversial encryption provision included in the law on drug trafficking in March on similar reasons.
The EU Commission also consistently fails to agree on what has been nicknamed Chat Control, a bill that would use mandatory scans of all citizens’ chat in an attempt to stop the spread of the material for sexual abuse.
Nevertheless, encryption at the intersection of the intersection is globally – on the one hand, law enforcement sees it as an obstacle to criminal investigation on the other, cybersecurity experts repeat its importance to everyone’s privacy and security online.
