This bill isn’t limited to phone calls. It also applies to any bot on any social media site that receives more than 10mm visitors per month that exists to “incentivize a purchase or sale of goods or services in a commercial transaction”. In other words, a Facebook Messenger bot answering pre-sale questions is violating this law unless it has a massive disclosure about it being a bot. At first glance it also appears that this law would make chats in which a bot handles most but not all of the interaction illegal. For example, an online chat with a support tech that begins with an automated “this is Larry, how can I help you?” seems to be illegal under this law. Larry exists, but the bot is “impersonating” Larry during the automated portions of the conversation. This is a poorly thought out, overly broad law.
One sidenote...HN really needs a way to just “save” articles. I didn’t want to upvote this article, because that sends the wrong signal - that I am somehow in favor of unworkable regulations. I didn’t want to “favorite” it either, because this certainly doesn’t fall into the category of my favorite articles that I’d like to keep around on that list for a long time. But I do want to keep track of the discussion today, because I find it fascinating just how many technologists are in favor of onerous regulations governing their own industry. Currently, there is no way to simply save an article on HN without upvoting or favoriting it.
I don't think upvoting is meant to be a signal that you agree with the article - only that you think the article should be seen and discussed by the HN community. You clearly do think this, so an upvote is appropriate. After all, upvoting an 'X has died' post doesn't mean that you're glad they're gone!
Re:bookmarking, I always forget to delete it. I guess I should create a Chrome extension that lets me create a temporary bookmark that will automatically be deleted after X period of time. With regard to upvoting, I'd say articles like this fall in a different category than the death announcements. If you upvote this one, especially given the overwhelmingly positive response to it in the comments, you're at least tacitly endorsing it. Lawmakers that might have rejected this bill because it outlaws many legitimate tasks performed by chat bots might look at the number of upvotes and say "a community of tech people on the web really like it!" and vote for it. I certainly wouldn't want to play even a minor role in the passage of a bill such as this one. I'm not sure that the nuances of upvoting are going to be clear to everyone that visits HN.
> At first glance it also appears that this law would make chats in which a bot handles most but not all of the interaction illegal.
Only illegal if it isn't disclosed that it's a bot ("A person using a bot shall not be liable under this section if the person discloses that it is a bot."), and the bill doesn't dictate the form of that disclosure, only that it must be "clear, conspicuous, and reasonably designed to inform persons with whom the bot communicates or interacts that it is a bot".
One sidenote...HN really needs a way to just “save” articles. I didn’t want to upvote this article, because that sends the wrong signal - that I am somehow in favor of unworkable regulations. I didn’t want to “favorite” it either, because this certainly doesn’t fall into the category of my favorite articles that I’d like to keep around on that list for a long time. But I do want to keep track of the discussion today, because I find it fascinating just how many technologists are in favor of onerous regulations governing their own industry. Currently, there is no way to simply save an article on HN without upvoting or favoriting it.