FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
October 14, 2025
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Washington, D.C. | We did it. Governor Newsom vetoed California Senate Bill 771 (Stern) — a dangerous and unconstitutional proposal that sought to suppress politically protected speech under the guise of fighting hate. The American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee (ADC) welcomes this decision as a major victory for free expression, civil rights, and democratic accountability.
“Governor Newsom’s veto of SB 771 is a decisive victory for the First Amendment. This bill tried to turn IHRA into an enforcement tool to police lawful speech about Israel and Palestine, but people across the political spectrum said enough. We will not allow any state to put a foreign government’s priorities over our constitutional rights. This veto reaffirms a simple truth: criticism of government policy—any government’s policy—is not hate speech, and the digital public square must remain open to dissent,” said ADC National Executive Director, Abed Ayoub.
With this action, Governor Newsom rejected this Orwellian censorship bill and stood up for the First Amendment rights of all Americans. For months, ADC has mobilized a powerful national coalition of more than 60 organizations across civil rights, labor, tech, and community sectors to expose SB 771 for what it truly was: a backdoor attempt to criminalize dissent and shield Israel from criticism as it commits a genocide against the Palestinian people at the expense of Californians’ constitutional freedoms.
SB 771 would have fined social media companies between $500,000 and $1,000,000 if algorithms “amplified” content alleged to promote hate. A standard so overbroad it would have forced platforms to employ a de facto policy, erasing lawful political speech and silencing legitimate discourse. By design, this bill would have empowered a heckler’s veto, allowing political interests to label dissent as hate and erase it from public view or be charged financial penalties up to a million dollars.
“What made this bill so dangerous was its deception. On the surface, it claimed to combat hate; in reality it sought to police thought during a livestreamed genocide. When read against existing content moderation policies, its true purpose becomes clear: SB 771 was the enforcement arm of the IHRA definition of antisemitism, a mechanism to weaponize private tech companies against public discourse critical of the Israeli government while it commits war crimes with impunity. By threatening social media platforms with million-dollar fines if they do not enforce politically motivated rules, SB 771 would have acted as an ‘Israel Tax,’ coercing compliance with the powerful Israel Lobby at the expense of free expression and triggering costly lawsuits to the state that would have been paid for by California’s taxpayers. The ADC welcomes Governor Newsom’s refusal to sell out Californians. This veto is a decisive victory for free speech, transparency, and the democratic principles on which this country was founded,” said Ellie Yousif, National Advocacy and Communications Manager
Part of our efforts involved engaging and working directly with state lawmakers including Assemblymembers Ash Kalra and Ortega and Senator Stern’s office. ADC also engaged civil society, tech, and labor organizations including Computer & Communications Industry Associations (CCIA), TechNet Sacramento, FIRE, and National Organization of Legal Services Workers (UAW NOLSW). Through relentless advocacy, ADC shifted the narrative from “tech versus consumers” to a fundamental question of civil rights, constitutional protections, and government overreach. Read our coalition letter here.
Governor Newsom’s decision comes as he continues to position himself on the national stage. By vetoing SB 771, he has sent a clear message to Americans: the constitution is not for sale, and political ambition should never come at the expense of our most fundamental freedoms.