New York’s high court upholds hate speech law against First Amendment challenge

New York’s Court of Appeals upheld a state law requiring social media platforms to provide hate speech reporting mechanisms but ruled platforms are not obligated to adopt the state’s definition of 'hateful conduct' or act on reports. The 4-3 decision emphasized empowering users to report hate speech rather than compelling platforms to endorse the state’s stance. The law, enacted in 2022 following a Buffalo supermarket shooting, faced a First Amendment challenge from a libertarian legal scholar and Rumble, a platform linked to President Donald Trump’s Truth Social.