State legislators in the Democrat stronghold of New York are pushing a bill that would allow lawsuits to be brought against tech companies that spread so-called misinformation.
The bill would allow the New York attorney general, city corporations, as well as private citizens to sue tech companies that “knowingly or recklessly” promote information that “endangers the health or safety of the public,” a category that, according to Democrat state senator, would encompass “hate speech” as well as disinformation.
“We need real world solutions to the growing problems of online disinformation and hate speech. Throwing your hands up and saying nothing can be done isn’t sufficient. People’s lives are endangered everyday and nobody’s being held accountable,” said Hoylman.
Legal experts contacted by the New York Post argue that Hoylman’s bill is unlikely to stand up in court.
Via the New York Post:
“COVID misinformation, political misinformation, and many other categories of ‘false’ or harmful information are protected by the First Amendment,” said Eric Goldman, an internet law professor at Santa Clara University School of Law in Silicon Valley.
“This bill’s attempt to restrict the dissemination of that constitutionally protected content is facially unconstitutional.”
While Hoylman’s bill tries to distinguish between sites allowing users to post certain content and promoting that content by recommending it through features like Instagram’s explore page and YouTube’s recommendations bar, Goldman believes that distinction wouldn’t hold up in court.
This is another sign that Democrats wish to wield state power to make Big Tech platforms even more censored than they already are. It follows a year of public pressure from the Biden White House against tech companies for hosting so-called misinformation.
In July, a group of 189 House Republicans sent a letter to the Biden administration demanding answers on its collusion with tech companies to censor First Amendment protected speech. This followed White House press secretary Jen Psaki openly admitting that the administration identified posts to Facebook that they believed contained “misinformation.”
Allum Bokhari is the senior technology correspondent at Breitbart News. He is the author of #DELETED: Big Tech’s Battle to Erase the Trump Movement and Steal The Election.