The state of California passed a law in 2022 that imposes new regulations on social media companies. This law, AB 587, requires companies to give the California Attorney General’s Office regular reports regarding disinformation, misinformation, extremism, radicalization, and hate speech. The law allows the state to impose fines if companies do not comply with these reporting regulations.
You may be asking, “Isn’t controlling misinformation and hate speech online a good thing?”
The truth of the matter is that the government and Big Tech companies working together to control what everyone is allowed to say is a bad thing. A good thing is when everyone is allowed to speak freely. Not everyone’s definitions of “misinformation” or “hate speech” are the same.
In the case of our work at The Babylon Bee, jokes and satire are often incorrectly cited as examples of misinformation or hateful conduct by organizations and government agencies who think our views don’t fit their prescribed narrative. When people in power don’t like what you have to say, they can use that power to categorize your speech as “hateful,” even if what you’re saying is factually accurate.
