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The First Amendment protects from state regulation speech that may be deemed "hateful" and generally disfavors regulation of speech based on its content unless it is narrowly tailored to serve a compelling governmental interest.
Similarly, the Hateful Conduct Law requires a social media network to endorse the state's message about "hateful conduct".
This could have a profound chilling effect on social media users and their protected freedom of expression.
This potential wariness is bolstered by the actual title of the law— "Social media networks; hateful conduct prohibited" —which strongly suggests that the law is really aimed at reducing, or perhaps even penalizing people who engage in, hate speech online.
A federal judge issued an injunction blocking enforcement of New York’s “Hateful Conduct Law” seeking to regulate “hate speech” on social media platforms, ruling that the law is a violation of the First Amendment, which prevents the U.S. government from regulating the speech of its citizens.
“The law is clearly aimed at regulating speech.
New York’s “Hateful Conduct Law” shares similarities with California’s law requiring social media platforms to report their policies on hate speech, extremism and disinformation to the state attorney general twice a year. The bill was signed into law by California governor Gavin Newsom last year.