Sign SB 771 to Hold Social Media Companies Accountable for Illegal Intimidation

We ask for your signature on SB 771.   SB 771 clarifies that a social media platform may be liable for civil penalty under already existing California law if and when its algorithms or AI aid or abet individual users to intimidate marginalized others in online spaces.   While hateful speech is problematic, it is not illegal. However, it can cross the line into illegal action. Hateful speech is illegal under existing California law when it threatens others. For example, when hate speech is “brought to the doorstep” of marginalized communities, it is no longer protected speech, but unlawful intimidation, terrorism, and threat.   This means that, as an individual, you can legally post flyers with anti-immigrant messages on your own physical door or social media account; however, when you maliciously post those same flyers on the physical doors of immigrant families, or send them to others’ virtual social media accounts, you are now engaging in intimidating and threatening behavior–which is unlawful in the state of California.   Major social media platforms have dramatically altered their practices that had previously sought to mitigate the impacts of this kind of hateful content and protect historically targeted groups. They have not yet announced any effort to prevent their AI from acting in tandem with individuals’ efforts to credibly threaten or intimidate targeted groups through the platform, efficiently making sure those targeted are being barraged by threats and intimidation.   While social media platforms are not responsible for the speech of individual users, aspects of social media platforms, such as algorithms or AI, can be complicit in not only the intensification of hateful beliefs but also their proliferation across a given platform. This includes being complicit in the targeting of marginalized groups with hate, which is unlawful. CA SB 771 clarifies that a platform might incur liability pursuant to existing law via this kind of AI-driven content delivery, which is a necessary step in regulating online intimidation.