FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 17, 2025
Contact: [email protected]
WASHINGTON, D.C. | The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) is sounding the alarm to its nationwide membership and allied organizations on California Senate Bill 771 (SB 771), a dangerous and unconstitutional measure that would punish online platforms and users for speech critical of Israel, state violence, and systems of oppression. As written, the bill enables sweeping censorship under the guise of protection. With less than one month left, ADC is mobilizing communities and organizations across the country to stop it.
The legislation would expose social media companies to massive civil penalties for content they do not remove — directly infringing on their First Amendment rights and editorial discretion. Companies could face financial penalties in the billions if their platforms or algorithms are alleged to have facilitated illegal threats, harassment, or intimidation against protected groups, including those based on race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation.
“Exposing companies to such extreme civil penalties would likely force the overpolicing of lawful expression, chill free speech, and distort the online environment in ways that harms all users,” said ADC National Executive Director, Abed Ayoub. “Beyond moral and political concerns, SB 771 also raises serious constitutional issues.”
Courts have repeatedly affirmed that platforms are protected in their decisions to curate, prioritize, and moderate content, similar to traditional publishers and broadcasters. The bill’s liability structure likely conflicts with Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, a cornerstone of internet free speech that protects platforms from civil liability for third-party content and good-faith moderation decisions. In recent rulings — including NetChoice v. Paxton and Twitter, Inc. v. Taamneh — courts have struck down similar state-level attempts to control online expression and platform design.
Framed as a civil rights safeguard, SB 771 could enable politically motivated claims that conflate criticism of Zionism with antisemitism — a trend already visible in Meta’s content moderation policies, where “Zionist” is treated as interchangeable with “Jewish,” and in the push for platforms to adopt the controversial international Holocaust Remembrance Alliance (IHRA) definition of antisemitism. This definition has been widely criticized by hundreds of scholars and numerous Jewish organizations (including JVP and Jews for Racial and Economic Justice) for erasing the line between political critique and bigotry, raising serious concerns that SB771 could be used to suppress protected speech about apartheid, occupation, and settler colonialism in Palestine.
ADC condemns all forms of hate and stands firmly against discrimination in every form. SB 771 weaponizes civil liability to force platforms to remove content that challenges dominant narratives, particularly those relating to Israel and Palestine. By encouraging platforms to over-police content to avoid costly lawsuits, SB 771 can trigger a de facto “delete policy” — especially for Palestinian voices and those in solidarity with them.