California is on the brink of turning social media into a sanitized echo chamber with a bill that could slap platforms with million-dollar fines for not playing speech police.
The Daily Caller reported that SB 771, a controversial measure that sailed through both chambers of the state legislature and landed on Governor Gavin Newsom’s desk this week, seeks to penalize social media giants for failing to scrub content that violates California’s civil rights laws.
Lawmakers behind the bill point to alarming spikes in online hostility, including a 400% surge in anti-LBGTQ+ rhetoric on major platforms, as reported by groups like the Human Rights Campaign and the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH).
Under SB 771, platforms ranking in $100 million or more annually could face fines up to $1 million for willfully spreading content deemed unlawful via their algorithms.
Even lesser violations, if deemed reckless, could cost companies a cool $500,000 per infraction—a financial sledgehammer that critics say will force overzealous content removal.
Supporters, including the George Soros-funded CCDH and over a dozen Jewish organizations, argue this is a necessary guardrail against hate-motivated harm, like anti-immigrant slurs and other digital venom.
Yet, the CCDH’s track record raises eyebrows, given its past push to demonetize conservative outlets like The Daily Wire and Breitbart through reports like “The Toxic Ten,” which targeted alleged climate misinformation.
Emails uncovered by the House Judiciary Committee also showed the Biden White House leaning on CCDH’s “Disinformation Dozen” report to nudge Facebook into censoring vaccine skeptics—hardly a neutral arbiter of free expression.
On the flip side, opposition to SB 771 spans a curious coalition, including left-leaning groups like Voices for Justice in Palestine and the California chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, who fear the bill’s overreach.
Critics warn that SB 771 could collide with Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, which shields platforms from liability over user content, potentially sparking courtroom battles.
“If people think platforms remove their content too much now, they should expect to see the pattern significantly intensify with this law,” said Shoshana Weissmann, Director of Digital Media at the R Street Institute, painting a grim picture of preemptive censorship.
Weissmann’s point cuts deep—when faced with the specter of billion-dollar penalties, platforms might just hit the mute button on anything remotely controversial, lawful or not.
California’s track record on regulating online speech isn’t exactly a victory lap, with recent federal rulings striking down laws like AB 2839 and AB 2655 after lawsuits from outlets like the satire site Babylon Bee.
Earlier, the state backed off enforcing parts of a 2022 law mandating transparency on content moderation after a legal tussle with Elon Musk’s X Corp, signaling that constitutional challenges are a real hurdle.
With SB 771 teetering on the edge of becoming law, one can’t help but wonder if this is less about protecting the vulnerable and more about tightening the progressive grip on digital discourse—though, to be fair, the intent to curb genuine hate is a concern worth wrestling with.
