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

Election Fraud Prosecution at an ‘All-Time High’: Texas Attorney General’s Office

Show Me

We Were Told That Election 2020 Reports Of Late Night Ballot Drops In White Vans In Multiple States During After The Deadline Was A “Conspiracy Theory” | The Only Problem Was More Video Was Discovered Showing Late Night/Early Morning Ballot Drops 8 Hours After The Deadline | Video: 7 Minutes 21 Seconds

Show Me

Exclusive: Suspicious Vehicle Seen Escorting Late Night Election 2020 Biden Ballot Van at TCF Center

Show Me

They Banned Discussion Of Possible Election Fraud Via Computer Systems While “533 Million Facebook Users Had Private Information Leaked Today, Zuckerberg Knew In January And Did Nothing” | Wonder Why. . .

Show Me

One Of The Biggest Media Loudmouths Opposing Even The Thought That Computer Systems Can Be Hacked In An Election, Gets Hacked | “Statement From Atlantic Media on Unauthorized Access of Its Servers”

Show Me

Mainstream Media Debunked Again | “Pennsylvania Forced to Remove 21,000 Dead People Off Its Voter Rolls: Settlement”

Show Me

Giuliani Denies Defaming Dominion Voting With Election Claims

Show Me

Dan Crenshaw Debunks Liberal ‘Racist’ ID Claims with Joe Rogan

Show Me

If You Think Matt Gaetz Is Targeted Because He’s Heterosexual, Think Again | Gaetz Is Targeted Because He’s Feared By The Left | It’s Interesting To Look Back & Hear Rep. Gaetz and Bernie Kerik Discuss Election Fraud & Impeachment Issues and It’s Importance Moving Forward | Video: 8 Minutes 51 Seconds

Show Me

NJ City Councilman Accused of Mail-In Voting Fraud Pleads Not Guilty

Show Me

Paterson councilman Alex Mendez pleads not guilty to voter fraud charges

Show Me

California Mayor Resigns After Pleading Guilty to Election Fraud

Show Me

Biden-Voting County Sees 5 Charged for Election Fraud.

Show Me

24 More Charged in Voter-Fraud Probe, Prosecutors Say

Show Me

Monsanto Case Reveals That Power Conspiracies On A Massive Scale Do Happen | Think Election 2020 Fraud

Show Me

Disparate treatment in two fund-raising fraud cases renews debate over dual Justice system

Show Me

Notary Was Arrested, Charged With Voter Fraud In Connection With Aberdeen Alderman Election

Show Me

Mayor Pro Tem of California City Resigns After Pleading Guilty to Election Fraud

Show Me

Finding of Absentee Ballot Fraud in local Mississippi race requires a new election

Show Me

‘We’re Living in a Gigantic Lie’ – Dennis Prager Talks Free Speech | American Thought Leaders | Video: 47 Minutes 32 Seconds

Show Me

American Center For Law & Justice | Fmr CDC Dir. Confirms Conservative “Conspiracy Theory” is Highly Likely | Video: 4 Minutes 6 Seconds

Show Me

Ex-CDC Director Says He Believes Coronavirus Escaped from a Chinese Lab

Show Me

Scientists Issue Open Letter Detailing Incorrect and Contradictory Claims in WHO Origins Report Used to Downplay Lab Leak Theory

Show Me

WHO buries dismissal of lab leak theory in last pages of 123-page origins report, draft copy shows

Show Me

Washington Examiner: John Durham Interviewing Witnesses And Subpoenas

Show Me

Epidemiologist: We Could Have Reached Natural Herd Immunity in 6 Weeks | Video: 1 Hour 12 Minutes 27 Seconds

Show Me

The Most Melancholy Comet We’ve Ever Seen

Show Me

Dozens of Plaintiffs Demand Day in Court Against Monsanto as Bayer Tries to Reassure Investors

Show Me

Brazil’s COVID-19 death toll to surpass that of worst U.S. wave

Show Me

Manchin Vows to Uphold Filibuster, Complicating Biden’s Agenda

Show Me

Steven Crowder’s Latest Video Has The Internet Going Absolutely Ballistic

Show Me

COVID vaccination site closes early after adverse reactions to Johnson & Johnson shot

Show Me

In Michigan, 246 fully vaccinated people tested positive for COVID-19, three died

Show Me

Biden Commerce Secretary Says Trump’s Steel and Aluminum Tariffs Saved American Jobs

Show Me

April 7, 2021 | Nightly News Rebroadcast | Video: 46 Minutes

Show Me

Shh. These Are The Constant Mass Shootings We’re Not Supposed To Talk About | “2-Year-Old Boy, 7 Adults Wounded in Latest Chicago Shootings”

Show Me

Democrat Run States & Cities Continue To Struggle With Covid-19 | “Minnesota hospitalizations climb as virus cases trend upward”

Show Me

Official: EU agency to confirm AstraZeneca blood clot link

Show Me

NASA gets first weather report from the Jerezo Crater Mars using a system strapped to Perseverance

Show Me

What to Know About the Facebook Data Leak

Show Me