California's SB 1001 Bans Bot Deception in Transactions, Not All Bot Use

California's Bolstering Online Transparency Act (SB 1001), in effect since July 2019, is widely misunderstood as requiring all chatbots to identify themselves as automated. In reality, the law only prohibits using a bot with intent to deceive another person specifically to drive a commercial transaction or influence an election vote. A bot that makes no attempt to pass as human falls outside the statute's reach, even if it never explicitly announces its automated nature. The law defines a bot as an automated online account where most or all activity is not driven by a human, a definition shaped around social media that fits other digital tools imperfectly. Operators can avoid liability through a safe-harbour disclosure provision, but many harmful bot behaviours — such as fake grassroots campaigns or non-transactional impersonation — remain outside this law's scope entirely.