Adri Ofman Speaks With Lawmakers on Capitol Hill About Proposed App Store Legislation
Adri Ofman with Congressman James Walkinshaw
Ofman’s visit included a lunch briefing with Congressman James Walkinshaw and a meeting with the office of Senator Ashley Moody. The discussions focused on two proposed pieces of legislation that could have unintended consequences for small developers: the App Store Accountability Act (ASAA) and the App Store Freedom Act (ASFA).
“ASAA is like requiring every store, including the toy store down the street, to hire bouncers to card customers at the door,” said Ofman. “It sounds protective, but in reality, it adds huge costs, invades user privacy, and misses the point entirely.”
During the meetings, Ofman outlined specific concerns related to the App Store Accountability Act. As proposed, ASAA would impose blanket age-verification requirements on all applications, including safe, everyday tools such as calculators or weather apps. This would require developers to collect and store sensitive age-related data regardless of an app’s risk profile.
This would burden small developers with costly compliance and introduce unnecessary risks, without meaningfully improving child safety online. The Developers Alliance supports the Parents Over Platforms Act (POPA) as an alternative approach. POPA encourages responsible age signaling without imposing broad, mandatory age-verification requirements across all apps.
The discussions also addressed the App Store Freedom Act. Ofman noted that ASFA would allow unvetted third-party app stores and payment systems, creating additional challenges for small development teams. Under this framework, developers could be required to build and test their apps across multiple app stores, each with its own technical standards.
For small companies with limited resources, maintaining compatibility across multiple platforms would be costly and difficult. Ofman also raised concerns that the bill could erode existing parental controls and consumer trust, with particular impact on family-friendly applications.
“Small developers are innovators, job creators, and problem-solvers, but we’re not built to navigate a regulatory minefield designed for giants,” Ofman added. “These bills need a serious rethink.”
Ofman has been actively advocating for small technology companies for approximately three years in his role with the Developers Alliance. The organization advocates on behalf of developers, the companies they lead, and the industries that depend on them, helping policymakers and stakeholders understand the specific needs of the developer workforce and supporting policies that responsibly advance the broader technology sector.
In addition to his advocacy work, Ofman serves as COO of FlipaClip. FlipaClip is the number one animation app on both major app stores, with more than 90 million lifetime installs. The app allows users with a mobile device to create and publish animated stories.
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Ale Virkel
FlipaClip
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