Governor Gavin Newsom Signs New Social Media Legislation to Censor “Hate Speech” and “Disinformation”
Jose Nino
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According to Didi Rankovic of the Reclaim the Net, California signed this bill into law which has the aim of forcing social media companies to file enforcement reports two times annually to the state attorney general and publicly outline policies on “‘hate speech,’ disinformation, harassment, and extremism.”
After AB 587 received Newsom’s signature, the governor said that this is a social media “transparency and accountability measure” with the supposed aim of protecting Californians from “hate and discrimination.”
According to Rankovic, these reports will mandate tech companies to “explain how and if they define and remove content from a number of categories, such as hate speech or racism, extremism or radicalization, disinformation or misinformation, harassment, and foreign political interference.”
In addition, the reports are expected to tackle automated moderation, what happens to flagged content, and how many times the content has been viewed.
Newsom believes social media is being used to disseminate hate, disinformation, harassment, and lies that allegedly harm certain victim groups, and promised that California will not “stand by” as this takes place.
Netchoice, an NGO that aims “to make the internet safe for free enterprise and free expression.” voiced their opposition to AB 587. The pro-one line free speech group believes AB 587 infringes on First Amendment freedoms.
The passage of such a bill is not surprising when looking at California’s governing ethos of the past two decades. It’s a thoroughly culturally leftist state that views traditional American freedoms as reactionary afterthoughts that must be stamped out.
At this juncture, right-wing activists who live in blue states will either have to move into rural areas in order to resist state overreach through nullification. Sadly, most right-wing individuals will end up moving to red states in search of freer pastures.
That’s the state of affairs in 2022 USA.
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