For business
Your Website Chatbot May Be Ready. What About Your Instagram DMs?
Evaluate human escalation across Instagram, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, RCS, Apple Messages for Business, and other customer-service channels.
No platform or vendor can guarantee legal compliance.
Start with the service you actually provide
Inventory the channels where your business provides customer service, not just the social accounts it owns. California AB 1609 requires a commonly understood way to ask for a human on each customer service platform (§ 22627(a)). Revenue is one applicability factor, not a readiness score or legal conclusion.
What counts as a large private business?
“Large private business” is the law’s term for a business with more than $500 million in gross annual revenue nationally that provides goods and services to customers. The definition is based on revenue, not ownership, so on our reading it includes both publicly traded and privately held companies. Government agencies are not businesses under this reading. The law does not say whether nonprofits above the threshold are covered; that question is pending legal review.
Bus. & Prof. Code § 22625(g) · Our reading; pending legal review. Full note on the AB 1609 page
Design the human request
- Review the prompts, menus and natural-language requests that lead to an agent.
- Keep the request understandable and accessible throughout the customer journey.
- Record where service is delivered, who owns escalation, business hours and time zone.
- Check AI disclosure against § 22626(a)–(b).
Timing and appointments
Review the good-faith connection or specific appointment standard in § 22627(b)(1)(A)–(B), together with the business-hours provisions in § 22627(d). Email, web contact forms and voicemail have the timing exception described in § 22627(e)(1); this is not a blanket exception from human-access requirements.
Platform limitations are not legal exceptions
Platform message windows, account eligibility and routing capabilities must be verified against current official documentation. Confirm both your platform configuration and your operational handoff process; do not infer statutory coverage or an exemption from a platform feature.
Readiness work plan
- Inventory actual customer-service channels.
- Assign channel owners and document human escalation.
- Test requests, handoffs and specific appointment offers.
- Review staffing, business hours, accessibility and failure recovery.
- Retain appropriately redacted evidence and review the interpretation with counsel.
Source and legal review
Read AB 1609 and the verified primary-source citations. These resources are educational, not legal advice. An unanswered message does not by itself establish a violation; only a public prosecutor or court can establish one.