Dan Bongino lost his YouTube account permanently after questioning Biden's mask mandates.
Gavin Newsom just gave Democrats something they did not have in 2022.
There is a reason the Founders did not sign their names, and Newsom just made it relevant again.
Gavin Newsom signed AB 1709 on September 10, calling it "a good day for our children."
The actual text tells a different story.
The law prohibits social media platforms from offering so-called "addictive features" – personalized feeds, autoplay, endless scroll – to any user under 16.
To comply, platforms must verify every user's age.
The bill points companies toward California's Digital Age Assurance Act – a law Newsom already signed last October requiring operating systems to collect age data at device setup and transmit it to app developers.
Two laws, one direction: a complete identification layer over every digital interaction in California.
Comply or pay fines of up to $50,000 per affected minor for knowing violations and $25,000 for negligent ones.
Every platform that wants access to the California market will have to build the infrastructure to identify you online and end anonymous internet use.
Democrats just built a registry.
Newsom called the bill's author his "legislator of the year" at the signing ceremony, while the author returned the favor, telling the crowd that no one in the country is doing more to "protect children and families."
That is the same Gavin Newsom who is handing the California Attorney General authority to expand the definition of "addictive features" through regulation – no new vote, no legislative approval, no public input required.
Biden White House Pushed YouTube to Silence Conservative Speech During COVID
The Biden White House did not wait for a law.
In 2022, YouTube permanently banned Dan Bongino – then one of the most-followed accounts on the platform – for COVID content the platform deemed misinformation about masks.
Documents Google's own lawyers provided to the House Judiciary Committee confirmed White House officials pushed the company behind the scenes to remove COVID content the administration disliked.
A federal court later blocked the Biden administration from coordinating with social media platforms after finding the arrangement crossed constitutional lines.
That was without knowing who the anonymous accounts were.
Give Democrats a government ID database and every anonymous account that ever questioned their COVID narrative becomes findable.
One call to the platform compliance team and the account disappears.
The fines built into AB 1709 make sure every platform has a compliance team standing by to take that call.
The Federalist Papers Were Anonymous Because Governments Use Names to Punish Dissent
Alexander Hamilton, James Madison, and John Jay wrote the Federalist Papers – the essays that argued America into ratifying its own Constitution – under the pseudonym "Publius."
Their identities stayed secret until Hamilton died in 1804.
The Supreme Court cited those same pseudonyms in McIntyre v. Ohio Elections Commission to explain why anonymous political speech is a constitutional right – because the men who built this country understood that identified speech is controlled speech.
Thomas Paine published Common Sense anonymously for the same reason.
California's AB 1709 does not ban speech outright.
It just makes sure the government knows who is speaking.
Britain Arrested 62000 People for Online Speech After Building the Same Digital ID Infrastructure
A seven-member e-Safety Advisory Commission stands ready under AB 1709 to recommend additional restrictions whenever a future attorney general decides the law needs expanding.
That attorney general will know exactly who you are.
Democrats ultimately failed to silence Bongino – he went on to become FBI Deputy Director under Donald Trump.
They did not get him.
With a government ID database behind them, they will not have to miss next time.
Anyone who questions the next government-approved narrative goes from anonymous to findable overnight.
Britain enacted its Online Safety Act with identical child-protection framing – including the same age-verification requirements California just approved.
In five years of enforcing its online speech laws, British police arrested 62,199 people for things they said or posted online.
Saying there are two genders became a criminal act online in the UK.
The ID layer did not catch predators.
It caught everyone.
Gavin Newsom just handed the next Democrat administration the tool to make sure no one in California can ever publish as Publius again.
Sources:
- "Newsom signs bill blocking 'addictive' social media features for children," Inside California Politics, Fox40, September 10, 2026.
- AB-1709 Bill Text, California Legislature, September 10, 2026.
- "Google to reinstate banned YouTube accounts censored for political speech," House Judiciary Committee Republicans, September 2025.
- "Twitter, Facebook, Google have repeatedly censored conservatives despite liberal doubts," Fox News, March 29, 2022.
- "More Than 62,000 Arrested for Speech-Related Offenses in Britain, Report Finds," American Greatness, September 10, 2026.
