DENVER (KDVR) — Gov. Jared Polis vetoed a Colorado Senate bill Thursday that was aimed at protecting social media users, citing concerns that the bill would degrade privacy rights in Colorado and create “unwarranted scrutiny” of speech on such sites.

“Despite good intentions, this bill fails to guarantee the safety of minors or adults, erodes privacy, freedom and innovation, hurts vulnerable people, and potentially subjects all Coloradans to stifling and unwarranted scrutiny of our constitutionally protected speech,” Polis wrote in his veto letter.

Sponsors of the bipartisan-backed bill, called Protections for Users of Social Media, aimed the legislation at protecting youth users of social media by requiring the companies to provide annual reports to the Attorney General’s Office that detailed each site’s policies and enforcement, specifically sharing information about illegal activity on the platforms.

The sponsors said they specifically were looking for information on firearms sales that violated federal or state law, sales of illicit substances and sex trafficking, among many others.

“Right now, it’s far too easy for youth to purchase illicit substances and illegal firearms on social media sites – we need to do more to protect our kids online,” said Rep. Andy Boesnecker, a Democrat representing Fort Collins, in a March release detailing how the bill passed through the House Health and Human Services Committee.

“This bipartisan bill would require social media companies to ramp up their reporting methods and swiftly remove buyers and sellers who violate the companies’ illegal sales policy and state law,” Boesnecker added. “As a state, it’s important we step in when our children are being lured toward illegal drugs, firearms, or sex trafficking on unregulated marketplaces – this bill works to keep our kids and communities safe.”

The bill would have also created a hotline for Colorado law enforcement to follow up on warrants submitted to social media companies, which was an effort to speed up the investigations.

“Make no mistake, I share the concerns of parents and law enforcement across our state about minors and adults exposed to illegal activity on social media platforms as well as in neighborhoods,” Gov. Polis wrote in his veto letter to the Colorado General Assembly. “This is why my office offered suggestions focused on strengthening tools to help law enforcement successfully apprehend criminals.”

Polis said the bill sponsors rejected the ideas and passed legislation that infringed on speech, privacy and liberty of users.

“This law imposes sweeping requirements that social media platforms, rather than law enforcement, enforce state law. It mandates a private company to investigate and impose the government’s chosen penalty of permanently deplatforming a user even if the underlying complaint is malicious and unwarranted,” Polis wrote. “In our judicial proceedings, people receive due process when they are suspected of breaking the law. This bill, however, conscripts social media platforms to be judge and jury when users may have broken the law or even a company’s own content rules.”

“This proposed law would incentivize platforms, in order to reduce liability risk, to simply deplatform a user in order to comply with this proposed law,” Polis continued.