Bill > A180

Introduced Session

This bill, notwithstanding any contrary provisions of State law, and consistent with federal law, prohibits a social media website from willfully selectively suspending, commonly referred to as "deplatforming," a candidate for office who is known by the social media website to be a candidate, beginning on the date of the qualification and ending on the date of the election or the date the candidate ceases to be a candidate. A social media website is to provide each user of the social media website a method by which the user may be identified as a qualified candidate and which provides sufficient information to allow the social media website to confirm the user's qualification by reviewing the Internet website of the Division of Elections in the Department of State or the Internet website of the local board of elections. The bill provides that a social media website that willfully provides free advertising for a candidate is to inform the candidate of that in-kind contribution. Posts, content, material, and comments by candidates that are shown on the social media website in the same or similar way as other users' posts, content, material, and comments are not to be considered free advertising. The bill provides that, upon finding a violation of the provisions of the bill by the Election Law Enforcement Commission, in addition to any remedies available pursuant to State law, the commission may assess against a social media website a penalty of $250,000 per day for a violation affecting a candidate for Statewide office and $25,000 per day for a violation affecting a candidate for other offices. This bill also 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 certain damages provided in the bill. 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

Dawn Fantasia (R)*,  Michael Inganamort (R)*, 

Introduced, Referred to Assembly Consumer Affairs Committee (on 01/09/2024)

Official Document