On December 21, 2024, New York Governor Kathy Hochul also signed new legislation, effective June 19, 2025, to encourage transparency on social media platforms.
The new law serves as a timely reminder that social media companies should review and update their policies and Terms of Service to ensure compliance with the regulatory requirements and to maintain clear communication with users.
Companies should also note, however, that similar statutes have been successfully challenged on constitutional grounds elsewhere in the U.S. In September the Ninth Circuit reversed the decision of a California district court denying an injunction as to the enforcement of a 2022 California statute (AB 587) closely tracking the New York law.
Scope: Assembly Bill A6789B will apply to companies that operate a social media platform — broadly speaking, an internet platform whose substantial function is to connect users in order to allow users to interact socially with each other and which allows users to construct profiles, populate a list of “friends”, and create or post content — who have generated $100m or more in gross revenue in the preceding calendar year.
Transparency: Under the new law, social media companies will be required to clearly post their Terms of Service (“ToS”), in a manner “reasonably designed” to inform users of the ToS’s existence and contents. A6789B also requires social media companies to include certain content in their ToS , including contact details for questions regarding the ToS, details on the process for reporting violations of the ToS, and potential actions the social media company can take in response to ToS violations.
Reporting: Additionally, social media companies must submit a report on their ToS to the New York attorney general twice a year. This report is to include the current ToS, along with any changes made to the ToS in the reporting period, and a description of the platform’s content moderation practices, such moderation policies, enforcement practices, reporting and removal mechanisms. The report must also include a statement as to whether the ToS define certain categories of objectionable content—including hate speech or racism, extremism or radicalization, disinformation or misinformation, harassment, and foreign political interference—along with statistical information on the volume of such content that has been flagged by the social media company.
Penalties: A social media company found to be in violation of the new requirements, either by failing to post their ToS or submit a report, or by filing a misleading or incomplete report, can be subject to a civil penalty of up to $15,000 per violation per day. Social media companies will have a 30-day grace period following notification of a violation to rectify the violation before civil penalties will be imposed.
The new law comes amid intense scrutiny from the media, public, and policymakers over the role of social media in shaping public discourse. Social media companies will need to review their existing policies for compliance with new requirements, as well as continue to monitor courts, statehouses and Congress for new developments.
