NY Passes Bill Requiring Hate-Speech Reporting on Social Networks

Blue state New York could soon join red states Texas and Florida in seeking to regulate social media companies. Despite opposition by tech and civil liberties groups, Gov. Kathy Hochul (D) is expected to sign a measure, passed Thursday by the Senate and Wednesday by the Assembly, to require social platforms to provide reporting mechanisms for hateful conduct. Also, the Assembly was expected to vote later Thursday on a Senate-passed measure that could make New York the first state with a digital right-to-repair law.

The Senate voted 60-3 Thursday for the social media bill (S-4511/A-7865), which would establish a $1,000 daily penalty for noncompliance (see 2205110009). The Assembly voted 112-37 Wednesday. A Hochul spokesperson pointed us to the governor’s Tuesday statement supporting the hate-speech measure as part of package of proposals responding to recent shootings in Buffalo and across the country. It was originally part of a group of bills introduced last year by Democratic state Sen. Anna Kaplan and Assemblymember Patricia Fahy. Their other proposals to require mechanisms for reporting vaccine (S-4512/A-7581) and election (S-4531/A-7864) misinformation are pending.

A Kaplan spokesperson disagreed with comparisons with Texas and Florida social media laws. There's a "huge difference” between what New York is proposing and the red states’ sweeping efforts to restrict content moderation and require disclosures about moderation policies, the person told us: Texas and Florida laws, now under litigation, are a "clear infringement" on platforms' First Amendment rights, whereas the New York bill is agnostic to what platforms can have or not have on their platform. The New York bill simply sets a framework in which the platform must have a reporting mechanism and respond to users who report hate speech on whether they will take down the offending content, said the spokesperson: Social platforms' reporting mechanisms are currently inconsistent and can be difficult to find and use.

“The racist domestic terrorist who murdered 10 innocent Black New Yorkers in a Buffalo supermarket was radicalized online in an environment where hate speech is encouraged and where there are few options for people of good conscience to sound the alarm about what’s going on there,” Kaplan said in a statement after Thursday’s vote. “Many social media platforms make it impossible to speak out when you see something dangerous or harmful online. My legislation will empower social media users to keep virtual spaces safer for all by providing clear and consistent reporting mechanisms to flag hate speech.”

Sen. George Borrello (R) voted no because “all this is going to do is … push people into lesser known and a dark-web social media platforms,” he said during livestreamed floor debate. All the bill does is say where users can report hate speech, said Sen. Todd Kaminsky (D): It’s “common sense” and “good policy.” Sen. Tim Kennedy (D) reminded opponents that the shooter in Buffalo posted hate online in advance, he said. “Are we to do nothing?”

“New York should not follow in Texas’s or Florida’s footsteps by passing unconstitutional laws that do more harm than good,” said NetChoice Counsel Chris Marchese. “The bill will chill constitutionally protected speech and do nothing to address content concerns.” NetChoice is one of the tech groups suing Texas and Florida.

The American Civil Liberties Union is also opposed. “While offensive, hateful speech pervades many online platforms, government regulation of social media content is not the solution,” said ACLU-New York in a memo forwarded to us Thursday by its spokesperson. The bill probably would violate the First Amendment and “is almost certainly preempted” by Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, it said. “The bill would continue the distressing nationwide trend of states attempting to regulate online speech by dictating what private platforms may or may not host,” added the ACLU, comparing it to a Texas law now being litigated (see 2206010060). the ACLU understands concerns after the Buffalo shooting, but “states nonetheless should avoid regulating online content … because the alternative is a constitutional and social minefield of unintended consequences.”

New York senators voted 59-4 Wednesday for a right-to-repair measure (S-4104/A-7006) to require parts, tools and documentation from manufacturers. Wireless and consumer tech industry groups have opposed such bills in many states (see 2204060043). CTA declined to comment and CTIA and the Entertainment Software Association didn’t comment now.

New York’s right-to-repair bills “are the closest we’ve come” to getting a state law, emailed iFixit Sustainability Director Elizabeth Chamberlain: If New York becomes the first state with such a law, right-to-repair advocates will “roll our sleeves up and get to work, aiming to extend the same protections to the rest of the country.”

Advocates’ goal has been to pass a broad bill in one state “and then get manufacturers to the table to negotiate extending the same protections to the rest of the country without a patchwork of state laws,” said Chamberlain. Possible New York protections could help people in other states since it could be “easier to make something like repair documentation or software available to everyone,” she said.