Another day, another free speech showdown. This time, it’s in the U.S., where the noted free-speech advocate, blogger and founder of the Journal of Free Speech Law Prof. Eugene Volokh is suing New York’s Attorney General Letitia James over a law intended to crack down on “hateful conduct” online. The law would make a large class of website owners responsible for handling and directly responding to claims of “hateful conduct” about material on their website (e.g. in the comments section), and require them to publish a document setting out their policy on the matter. Failure to comply would carry a penalty of $1,000 per day, per infraction. Showing the intention behind this law, the Attorney General declared in October that: “Online platforms should be held accountable for allowing hateful and dangerous content to spread on their platforms.”
