Bill > A408

Introduced Session

This bill creates a private right of action for users of a social media website, as those terms are defined in the bill, whose political or religious speech has been deleted or censored by the social media website or whose political or religious speech has been disfavored or censured by an algorithm used by the social media website. A user may be awarded all of the following damages: 1) a minimum of $75,000 in statutory damages per purposeful deletion or censoring of the user's speech; 2) actual damages; 3) punitive damages; and 4) any other form of equitable relief as determined by a court of competent jurisdiction. The bill provides that the prevailing party in a cause of action may be awarded costs and reasonable attorney fees. The bill provides that a court or jury is required to consider evidence that the owner or operator of a social media website restored from deletion or removed the censoring of a user's speech in a reasonable time when determining damages sought by a user. A court may not consider evidence of a user's alleged hate speech on the social media website as a basis for justification or defense of the social media website's actions. The bill provides that the Attorney General may bring a civil cause of action on behalf of a user whose political or religious speech has been censored by a social media website under certain circumstances provided in the bill.

AI Summary

Committee Categories

Bob Auth (R)*,  Sean Kean (R), 

Introduced, Referred to Assembly Science, Innovation and Technology Committee (on 01/09/2024)

Official Document