BILL NUMBER: S8217A
SPONSOR: HINCHEY
 
TITLE OF BILL:
An act to amend the criminal procedure law, in relation to requiring
certain covered platforms to provide a process for law enforcement agen-
cies to contact such platform and to comply with search warrants within
seventy-two hours
 
SUMMARY OF PROVISIONS:
3. Except as provided in subdivision four of this section or any other
law, an operator that provides a covered platform shall comply with a
search warrant within seventy-two hours after receiving such search
warrant if all of the following apply:
(a)such search warrant is provided to such operator or covered platform
by a law enforcement agency;
(b)the subject of such search warrant is information associated with a
user's account on the covered platform operated by such operator; and
(c)the information is controlled by a user of the covered platform.
 
JUSTIFICATION:
On December 19th, 2024, 16-year-old Avery Ping, connected with a drug
dealer on Snapchat to buy MDMA. Unfortunately, the drug dealer he
connected with laced the MDMA with fentanyl, poisoning him and resulted
in his death. After his death, it was discovered that law enforcement
had issued a warrant for the drug dealer's account 8 weeks before
Avery's death. On November 5th, a narcotics unit in Washington State
issued the initial warrant to Snapchat. It took 20 days for Snapchat to
respond, and when they did, they sent over very little information
because the drug dealer deleted his account between when the warrant was
issued and when Snapchat responded to the warrant. Had Snapchat
responded to the warrant in a timely manner, the drug dealer may have
been apprehended before selling Avery the laced MDMA.
While this occurred in Washington State, criminal activity endangering
youth knows no boundaries. On social media, minors in New York State can
readily obtain illicit substances in violation of New York State and
Federal Law. Additionally, minors on social media can be victimized by
sexual exploitative crimes, such as sex trafficking and sextortion.
To protect our youth on social media from those engaged in criminal
activity, this legislation will require a social media platform with at
least one million users to comply with a search warrant issued by law
enforcement within 72 hours of receiving the warrant. An identical
provision in Colorado passed both chambers and is awaiting the Gover-
nor's signature.
 
LEGISLATIVE HISTORY:
New bill.
 
FISCAL IMPLICATIONS:
None to state.
 
EFFECTIVE DATE:
his act shall take effect immediately