Rumble and Law Professor Sue New York Attorney General to Block Online Hate Speech Law, Calling It a First Amendment ‘Double Whammy’ | Law & Crime

Two days before New York’s online hate speech law is supposed to take effect, the video-sharing website Rumble and a law professor filed a lawsuit against New York Attorney General Letitia James (D) asking a judge to call it vague and unconstitutional.

Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, a non-profit group better known by its acronym FIRE, filed the 46-page complaint on behalf of three plaintiffs: Rumble, the crowd funding site Locals, and Eugene Volokh, the First Amendment scholar behind the legal blog The Volokh Conspiracy.

“New York politicians are slapping a speech-police badge on my chest because I run a blog,” Volokh wrote in a statement. “I started the blog to share interesting and important legal stories, not to police readers’ speech at the government’s behest.”

Passed in the wake of a white supremacist’s mass shooting of Black shoppers at a grocery story in Buffalo, New York, the law forces social media networks to publish a policy explaining how they will clamp down on speech perceived to “vilify, humiliate, or incite violence against a group or class of persons” based on race, color, religion, or other protected categories. FIRE notes that those platforms will be required to create a mechanism to report such speech — and must respond to those complaints.

In their complaint, Volokh’s lawyers say that the law “hangs like the Sword of Damocles over a broad swath of online services.”

“In something of a First Amendment ‘double whammy,’ the Online Hate Speech Law burdens the publication of disfavored but protected speech through unconstitutionally compelled speech — forcing online services to single out ‘hate speech’ with a dedicated policy, a mandatory report & response mechanism, and obligatory direct replies to each report,” the professor’s lawyer Darapana M. Sheth writes in the complaint. “If a service refuses, the law threatens New York Attorney General investigations, subpoenas, and daily fines of $1,000 per violation.”

Earlier this week, Buffalo mass shooter Payton Gendron pleaded guilty to all 25 state charges leveled against him for his terrorist attack, which he live-streamed via a GoPro that he wore to the mass slaughter. He disseminated a racist rant before his shooting spree that articulated his motives, like other white supremacists before him in Christchurch, New Zealand, and elsewhere.

The Empire State law had been intended, in part, to keep racially motivated terrorists from having spaces online to spread their ideologies and stop copycat attacks.

But Volokh says that the New York law goes too far, using such broad language that any attorney general can put bloggers at risk of financial ruin, if commenters share opinions that are disfavored by the state.

Under his interpretation of the statute, the professor says that regulators can go after an atheist perceived to have “vilified” organized religion — or comedian John Oliver for his recent segment on HBO’s Last Week Tonight sending up the British monarchy, which could be construed as a “humiliation” of the U.K.

“There can be no reasonable doubt New York will enforce the Online Hate Speech Law to strong-arm online services into censoring protected speech,” the complaint states. “The Attorney General’s intentions, in fact, could not be clearer; as recited, for example, in an October press release, the Attorney General declared that ‘[o]nline platforms should be held accountable for allowing hateful and dangerous content to spread on their platforms’ because an alleged ‘lack of oversight, transparency, and accountability of these platforms allows hateful and extremist views to proliferate online.’”

Rumble, Locals and Volokh want a federal judge to declare the law unconstitutional on its face as “vague” and “overbroad.” They also seek to a declaration that it runs afoul of Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a statute that has come under fire by politicians across the political spectrum. . . .

Rumble and Law Professor Sue New York Attorney General to Block Online Hate Speech Law, Calling It a First Amendment ‘Double Whammy’ | Law & Crime

Skip The Scoop | Seek Understanding

American Medical Association CEO calls laws banning kids trans surgeries ‘dangerous governmental intrusion’

Show Me

Uganda Detects Covid-19 Variant From India, Urges Caution

Show Me

Dr. John Eastman to Hold Press Conference Thursday at Noon MDT – After Being Fired for Speaking at a Trump Rally

Show Me

Massachusetts Man Took Over ‘OG’ Social Media Accounts to Steal Cryptocurrency: Justice Department

Show Me

Trump defends ‘great patriot’ Rudy Giuliani after ‘unfair’ FBI raid

Show Me

No, Other People’s Covid Vaccines Can’t Disrupt Your Menstrual Cycle

Show Me

High School Runner About To Set Record Collapses At Finish, Blames Outdoor Mask Mandate

Show Me

Joy Behar Claims Tim Scott ‘Doesn’t Understand’ The Difference Between A Racist Country And Systemic Racism

Show Me

Kamala Harris: America Isn’t a Racist Country — But We Have to ‘Speak Truth’ About History of Racism

Show Me

‘The 1619 Project’ and the Red Meat Project

Show Me

Caught on camera: Liz Cheney fist-bumps Biden before his speech

Show Me

Hawley Introduces Bill to Reduce Pentagon’s Reliance on Technology from China and Other ‘Adversary Nations’

Show Me

Water: The Forgotten Nutrient

Show Me

April 29, 2021 | Nightly News Rebroadcast | Video: 52 Minutes 29 Seconds

Show Me

German spies monitor anti-lockdown activists for suspected sedition

Show Me

Purchase Orders Show FDA Bought “Fresh” Livers of Viable Babies Killed in Abortions

Show Me

NC Sheriff: 2 deputies killed, suspect and 2 others dead

Show Me

Trump Floats 2024 Presidential Run Again, Says DeSantis Could Be Potential Running Mate

Show Me

Ashli Babbitt’s family plans to sue Capitol Police, officer who shot her

Show Me

Bannon’s War Room | Morning Edition Hour 1 | Recorded April 29, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 19 Seconds

Show Me

Giuliani’s Lawyer Accuses DOJ of ‘Corrupt Double Standard’ In Executing Warrants Against Him

Show Me

US Catholic bishops may press Biden to stop taking Communion

Show Me

WATCH: Christian Pastor Arrested in London for Quoting ‘Homophobic’ Bible Verses

Show Me

Minneapolis parking app hacked, personal information stolen

Show Me

Bannon’s War Room | Morning Edition Hour 2 | Recorded April 29, 2021 | Video: 47 Minutes 58 Seconds

Show Me

Bannon’s War Room | Evening Edition | Recorded April 29, 2021 | Video: 48 Minutes 59 Seconds

Show Me

Scott Outshines Biden, Enrages Libs With Inspiring Tale of Overcoming Adversity

Show Me

CCP Arrests Netizen for Posting Vaccine Death

Show Me

Facebook Blocks #ResignModi Posts for Hours as India Crisis Grows

Show Me

Border Patrol Chief Tells Biden: ‘I Cannot’ Comply With Demand To Use Non-Legal Immigration Terms

Show Me

U.S. Tells Citizens to Leave India as Covid-19 Swamps Hospitals

Show Me

Pompeo knocks Biden: He ‘successfully outlined a radical, socialist agenda’

Show Me

Biden Takes Credit for Ending Afghan War – After Extending It – in Speech to Congress

Show Me

Judge Denies Request to Stop Arizona Audit | Recorded April 28, 2021 | Video: 12 Minutes 44 Seconds

Show Me

Pompeo: Trump Changed How We Look at China | Americans’ Distrust in Media at Record High

Show Me

April 28, 2021 | Nightly News Rebroadcast | Video: 52 Minutes 29 Seconds

Show Me

Connecticut Lawmakers Vote to Repeal Religious Exemptions to Vaccines, Health Freedom Advocates Vow Legal Challenge

Show Me

Texas Counties Declare Disaster Over Border Crisis

Show Me

Ex-Trump aide sues Biden administration, alleging discrimination against white farmers

Show Me

Astronaut Michael Collins, Apollo 11 pilot, dead of cancer

Show Me