New York may not enforce law targeting ‘hateful conduct’ online

MANHATTAN — A federal court in New York enjoined the state form enforcing a law that requires social media sites to have a policy allowing users to report “hateful conduct” and a procedure for responding to those complaints. The language of the Hateful Conduct Law “strongly suggests that the law is really aimed at reducing, or perhaps even penalizing people who engage in, hate speech online,” a content-based restriction on speech that runs afoul of the First Amendment.