United States of America: Bill amending general business law to include social media terms of service was adopted by New York State Legislature

On 12 December 2024, the Bill amending the general business law to include social media terms of service was adopted by the New York State Legislature. The bill applies to social media companies with users in New York that generated at least USD 100 million in gross revenue during the preceding calendar year. It applies to platforms that enable social interaction, public profiles, social connections, and user-generated content. The bill requires companies to post detailed terms of service detailing user conduct rules, content flagging processes, and potential enforcement actions including removal, demonetisation, deprioritisation, or banning. Terms of service must be available in the twelve most common non-English languages spoken by limited-English proficient individuals in New York where product features are offered. Companies must submit semiannual reports to the Attorney General covering their terms of service, any changes, definitions of restricted content categories including hate speech, extremism, disinformation, harassment, foreign political interference, detailed content moderation practices, and statistics on flagged and actioned content disaggregated by multiple categories. The Attorney General must publish all reports in a searchable public repository. Violations carry civil penalties up to USD 15,000 per day.