A California bill would hold tech companies accountable for amplifying extremism | Opinion
In an era when much of our public life unfolds online, the digital world has become a battleground for the very soul of our society. Yet the tech companies that control this space are failing us, and the cost of their failure is measured not just in misinformation and division, but also — increasingly — lost lives.
This week, I testified before the California State Assembly in support of Senate Bill 771, a critical step toward finally holding tech companies accountable for amplifying hate, extremism and disinformation.
At the Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Los Angeles-based Jewish human rights activist organization, we have seen firsthand how online hate metastasizes into real-world violence over the course of three decades tracking the rise of digital extremism. Each year, we publish the Digital Terror and Hate Report Card, which assesses how major tech and social media companies confront — or fail to confront — extremism, harassment and other violating content on their platforms.
Our latest report paints a dire picture: Most major platforms, including Facebook, X (formerly Twitter), TikTok, YouTube, Amazon Music and Truth Social, received failing or near-failing grades — Ds and Fs dominate. This failure underscores a hard truth: self-regulation is no regulation at all. Voluntary measures are no match for profit-driven algorithms that thrive on outrage, hate and division.
The consequences are not theoretical: The Tree of Life Synagogue massacre in Pittsburgh, the racially-motivated mass shooting in Buffalo and other violent attacks have been directly linked to online radicalization. Meanwhile, foreign adversaries continue to exploit digital platforms unchecked and to manipulate Americans, sow division and destabilize democracy.
Despite these dangers, tech companies are moving in the wrong direction: They are dismantling content moderation teams, loosening community standards and refusing to be transparent about how their algorithms amplify dangerous content. They continue to prioritize profit over public safety, even as the real-world cost continues to rise.
SB 771, authored by Sen. Henry Stern, D-Los Angeles, addresses this urgent crisis with clarity and purpose. It ensures that California’s civil rights protections against hate crimes, harassment and intimidation apply equally to the digital world, especially when algorithms purposefully amplify harmful content. It empowers victims to seek meaningful recourse and imposes penalties scaled to a platform’s size and revenue, making enforcement real — not symbolic. This means that larger platforms, which have a greater impact, will face more severe penalties if they fail to uphold the standards set by Stern’s legislation.
At its heart, this bill is about restoring sanity, responsibility and fairness to the digital public square. Some critics argue that holding platforms accountable risks infringing on free speech. Let’s be clear: SB 771 is about policing harmful conduct—incitement to violence, targeted harassment and the spread of extremist ideologies — not ideas.
Freedom of expression does not mean freedom to profit from hate. It does not mean freedom to ignore the known consequences of spreading harassment and radicalization. This bill does not demand perfection from tech companies, it simply requires them to take reasonable steps to protect the public — steps they have had decades to take voluntarily but have consistently failed to implement.
As the birthplace of the modern tech industry, California has both a responsibility and a historic opportunity to lead. By passing SB 771, California can establish a national and even global model for ethical digital accountability.
Without meaningful consequences, online platforms will continue to prioritize profits over the public good, fueling violence, division and hate. SB 771 opens the door to civil suits with significant financial consequences for platforming hate. It is time to stop giving failing platforms a passing grade.
This story was originally published May 4, 2025 at 5:00 AM with the headline "A California bill would hold tech companies accountable for amplifying extremism | Opinion."