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

Delta Cancels Over 100 Flights, Opens Some Middle Seats

Show Me

Forget your phony laptop excuses, Hunter Biden: Devine

Show Me

Fact Check: Major League Baseball Moves All-Star Game over Law that Expands Some Voting

Show Me

The Cabal, As Time Magazine Called Them, Are At It Again | “More Corporations, Including Google, Microsoft, and American Express Denounce Georgia’s Voter Integrity Law”

Show Me

Matt Gaetz’s Stirring Speech On The House Floor Hours After The January 6th Capitol Breach Finalized Putting A Target On His Back | Video: 4 Minutes 15 Seconds

Show Me

In rural Minnesota, where cops and community are familiar, Derek Chauvin trial looks different

Show Me

Vaccinations Rise, but Variants and Factory Mix-Up Present Hurdles

Show Me

Iowa governor signs bill allowing permitless purchase, carry of handguns

Show Me

Beijing Accelerating Timeline for Possible Invasion of Taiwan, Expert Warns

Show Me

Crowds gather at holy sites across Jerusalem for Easter as the country unlocks

Show Me

Commentary: History of Easter

Show Me

Why Is Jesus Still Wounded After His Resurrection?

Show Me

Hackers leak phone numbers and personal data from 533 MILLION Facebook users online 

Show Me

Facebook removes Capitol attack suspect’s page

Show Me

Virgil: The Great Reset Continues — Facebook’s New Imperial Order 

Show Me

Zuckerberg-Funded Group Spent over $30 Million in Texas in the 2020 Election

Show Me

Mark Zuckerberg’s cellphone number goes online after massive Facebook hack

Show Me

Facebook data on more than 500M accounts found online

Show Me

Clear Thinking on Elections from Clarence Thomas

Show Me

Psaki Doubles Down On Biden’s ‘Four Pinocchio’ Claim That Georgia Election Bill Ends Voting Hours Early

Show Me

Major League Baseball bends to bullies, endorses lies about Georgia voting law

Show Me

South Carolina Democrat Introduces Bill Banning Minors from Gender-Reassignment Surgery

Show Me

Sen Paul blasts libs for ‘implying that people of certain races are not able to comply with rules’

Show Me

Our Species Is Enduring Largest Uncontrolled Experiment Ever, We Shouldn’t Ignore Vanden Bossche’s Warning

Show Me

Democrat Leaders Welcome MLB All-Star Game to Their States: Georgia Election Law Saga

Show Me

Georgia governor on growing backlash to election reform law: ‘We are not backing down’

Show Me

Is Dominion Voting Systems The Only Platform In The History Of Technology To Be Beyond Hacking As Dominion CEO Claimed Under Oath During Election 2020 Testimony? | Mike Lindell’s Second Television Special In Response | Video: 55 Minutes 39 Seconds

Show Me

Will Joe Biden walk back these comments after son Hunter admits laptop ‘could’ be his?

Show Me

Hunter Biden was ‘smoking crack every 15 minutes,’ his memoir ‘Beautiful Things’ reveals

Show Me

GOP Senators Demand Intelligence Records on Hunter Biden’s Dealings with Chinese Energy Conglomerate

Show Me

NPR issues stunning mea culpa after claiming Hunter Biden laptop story was ‘discredited’ by intelligence

Show Me

NPR Issues Correction After Falsely Claiming US Intelligence ‘Discredited’ Hunter Biden Laptop Story

Show Me

Hunter Biden: Ukraine Laptop ‘Could’ Be His but Says He Possibly Hacked by Russians

Show Me

Hunter Biden admits infamous laptop could be his, throwing media narrative for a loop

Show Me

NPR issues major correction on Hunter Biden laptop, Hunter admits laptop could be his

Show Me

Hunter Biden will talk about drug intervention, notorious laptop in CBS interviews

Show Me

Hunter Biden says he doesn’t remember having sex with Lunden Roberts

Show Me

Hunter Biden Addresses Laptop Saga for the First Time

Show Me

Text messages that allegedly sparked fed probe into Matt Gaetz emerge

Show Me

Matt Gaetz’ Communications Director Resigns Amid Sexual Allegations Scandal

Show Me