This was sent in more or less variations to California/Florida Chambers of Commerce, as well as NetChoice and CCIA advocacy groups
Hi,
Is there any way I can work with you to prevent Florida HB3 from coming into force of law as it will negatively affect my small business?
HB3 attempts to protect children 15 years and younger by banning them from all software they classify ( overly broadly ) as ‘social medial’ however it provides no good mechanisms for doing so:
1. The bill requires me to verify all my traffic to insure theyre not children regardless of the fact they may not be paying customers or even prospective buyers of my customers listings. Because of how it is written — in order to verify that someone is not a ‘child from Florida’ I will have to verify everyone who is not from the United States in general such as the majority of my traffic from India.
2. It’s cost prohibitive as I am in the R&D stage — so fees such as .50c per account + monthly fees will represent a daily and monthly expense far exceeding what I am currently earning from my traffic. It is common to earn from a small % of visitors for digital services and this will essentially break the freemium business model for me as well as many other systems like mine by requiring capitalization well in excess of whats possible with private savings ( forcing small software businesses to sell equity and take on investors in order to exist )
3. The language of the law as currently written places the burden of verification R&D, implementation, active verification and maintenance on small businesses rather than large platforms such as App Store, Play Store. Where as, if there was a verified account system from Google/Apple that could be reliably checked against by small businesses, such a system does not exist today. Additionally there isn’t a way to opt out of providing my services on these platforms to Florida alone. I only have the choice to disable access to everyone in the United States ( the most profitable market for software services ) or attempt to independently figure out how to implement this for all 50 states and 5 territories regardless of its relevance to the rest of them.
Therefore having this law come into force will very likely derive me of the ability to get to profitability selling my platforms services in the United States + erect an unfair capitalization barrier that would only be surmountable by VC-backed corporations ( not indie small businesses ) I am all for child safety but this law, in the way its written, without taking into account how small software businesses actually work, would derive me and many small business owners like me of our American Dream.
So again let me know if theres anything I can do through your organization,
7
Founder & Owner
Sprocket Bicycle Marketplace
www.sprocket.bike/rateus
