The House and the Senate originally couldn’t agree on the language used for Senate Bill 6280. After a series of negotiations, though, they were able to decide on a final version of the bill, which the lawmakers say is “one of the first and most comprehensive laws to regulate facial recognition technology in the nation.”

Under the bill, facial recognition technologies have to be tested for fairness and accuracy, since they’ve been proven to show bias against women and people of color. Law enforcement agencies would have to secure a court order or a warrant to be able to use them, and Washington state has to form a task force to study how public agencies should use and deploy facial recognition technologies.

Rep. Debra Entenman (D-Kent), one of the bill’s sponsors, said in a statement:

“The agreement we reached is a sensible compromise. I am confident that this bill now provides adequate guardrails for this emerging technology. It will mandate community input in how facial recognition technology is used and ensure that any use by the government is thoroughly vetted for accuracy, necessity, and fairness.”

Now that both the House and the Senate have approved the amended bill, the only thing it’s waiting for is the governor’s signature.

The European Union enforces a similar cap, but the US does not currently have a national standard. According to CNN, Juul’s five-percent pods have 59 mg/ml. Juul has said that’s equivalent to the nicotine-per-puff ratio in a pack of cigarettes. Some say the high-nicotine content in vape products is one reason the rate of teen vaping has been climbing. Others argue that the high-nicotine content has helped smokers transition away from cigarettes.

#BREAKING: Today I announced introduction of the END ENDS Act, legislation that caps nicotine concentrations allowed in e-cigarettes and presents a common-sense solution to the youth vaping epidemic that has already shown success abroad. pic.twitter.com/u9WyxCx4Xq

— Raja Krishnamoorthi (@CongressmanRaja) October 7, 2019

Regardless, companies, states and politicians are taking a stance against vaping products. Today, Kroger announced that it will stop selling e-cigs. Walmart and Rite Aid have made similar announcements. Massachusetts has temporarily banned vaping products until the CDC can determine what’s causing the vaping-related lung illness, and New York and Michigan have placed similar temporary bans on flavored vaping products.

The nicotine content in e-cigs has not been linked to the mysterious vaping-related illness. But regardless of the illness, legislators like Rep. Krishnamoorthi are concerned with the increase in teen vaping. According to the 2019 National Youth Tobacco Survey, 27.5 percent of high schoolers now use e-cigs, up from 20.8 percent in 2018.

The bill would create a “national commission” at the Department of Homeland Security. The commission would have the authority to hold hearings and issue subpoenas. It would also create a social media task force to coordinate the government’s response to security issues. The legislation could be introduced as soon as next week, The Washington Post says.

Today, representatives from Facebook, Google and Twitter appeared in a hearing before Senate lawmakers. The hearing questioned whether the platforms have become conduits for real-world violence. All three companies say they’ve improved their systems, but some lawmakers say they’re not doing enough.

The companies are also facing pressure from major civil rights groups. Yesterday, several groups wrote a letter saying tech giants have a “moral responsibility” to better combat how social media can be used “to inflict fear and spread hate.” While there have been attempts to make the internet safer — like Facebook’s plans to train its AI with police body camera footage — whether or not those efforts are effective is another question.

The Stopping Bad Robocalls Act requires carriers to authenticate every call and to offer opt-out blocking for free. To make that possible, it also supports the rapid implementation of call authentication technologies. The FCC will have to adopt critical consumer protections and to report its efforts against illegal callers to Congress if the bill becomes a law. It will also give the FCC up to four years to catch illegal robocall operators. Finally, it will establish a Hospital Robocall Protection Group to protect the healthcare system from illegal robocalls.

The final bill will likely look a bit different after the Senate and the House get together to discuss their respective versions. Even so, this is a huge step forward to ban illegal robocalls, which continues to become an increasingly problematic issue.

The Stopping Bad Robocalls Act leaders said in a statement:

“Today, the House of Representatives voted to restore Americans’ confidence in the telephone system and put consumers back in charge of their phones. We’re proud of the strong support our bipartisan Stopping Bad Robocalls Act received this afternoon and look forward to working with our colleagues in the Senate to produce a bill that the President can sign into law. The American people are counting on us to help end the robocall epidemic, and we will deliver for them.”

The Committee’s announcement calls social media platforms “world-wide conduits to spread vitriolic hate messages into every home and country.” During its hearing on the 9th, it’s hoping to examine hate crimes, the spread of white identity ideology and the impact of white nationalist groups on communities. It’s also hoping to conjure up and foster ideas on what the platforms can do to squash white nationalist propaganda.

The role online platforms play in aiding the spread of hateful views was put into the spotlight after it became clear that the New Zealand mass shooter made efforts to ensure his attack would go viral. While Facebook and Google acted quickly to take down videos of the attack, various versions of the footage still got out. In Facebook’s case, it was due to bad actors finding ways to dupe its AI, which it vows to beef up in the future.

Facebook might also discuss how it plans to enforce its new policy changes that officially ban white nationalism and separatism at the hearing. The social network has long been criticized for having loopholes in its rules that prohibit outright white supremacy, but not white nationalism and separatism. As The Washington Post notes, a group that identifies as white nationalists used the platform to organize the Charlottesville ‘Unite the Right’ rally, which turned violent and left three people dead.

According to WP, Facebook public policy director Neil Potts will represent the social network, while Alexandria Walden, who works as a counsel for free expression and human rights at Google, will testify for the tech giant. A representative for the National Lawyers’ Committee for Civil Rights Under Law will also testify, since the group was one of the organizations that pushed Facebook to patch up its loopholes and update its policy.