ATLANTA – The Georgia Bureau of Investigations would have expanded authority to compel telecommunications and internet companies to divulge subscriber information under legislation moving through the state legislature.
House Bill 161 could soon get the nod for a vote by the Senate, after the House of Representatives approved it by a wide bipartisan margin last week and after a Senate committee moved it forward this week.
The GBI, which requested the legislation, can already demand subscriber information from electronic service providers without going through the courts, if the attorney general agrees. But that authority only covers certain cases involving children, such as sexual exploitation.
HB 161, sponsored by Rep. Clint Crowe, R-Jackson, would expand the agency’s authority to include terroristic threats, identity theft, computer-related crimes, false reports to law enforcement, and harassing communications.
An action colloquially known as “swatting” would be covered. It became a big problem for the GBI a couple of years ago when false reports scrambled police to the addresses of public officials, with potentially dangerous consequences.
“We were requested back in 2023 and 2024 to conduct multiple investigations into swatting incidents across the state,” said Sara Lue, special agent in charge of cybercrime at GBI. She told the Senate Judiciary Committee Wednesday that the incidents included “cyber-enabled” threats.
“They pose a serious risk to public safety,” she said.
Lue said services such as Facebook and Instagram would be among those subject to demands for subscriber names, addresses, phone numbers, IP addresses and associated bank and credit account numbers. The agency would also be able to subpoena telephone records containing connections made, times they were made, and duration of conversations — but not the content of those conversations.
Sen. Bill Cowsert, R-Athens, an attorney who serves on the state Board of Homeland Security, said he was “sensitive” to granting subpoena power without judicial review. But his concerns about the proposed changes, including minor amendments to the version that passed the House, were ultimately allayed. Cowsert motioned to pass HB 161, and the Judiciary Committee then sent it to the Senate’s Rules Committee by a unanimous vote.
If the Rules Committee sends the legislation to the full Senate and the Senate approves it, the bill would have to return to the House for final approval of the latest changes.