NY Gov. Hochul Orders Social Media Surveillance

Kathy Hochul, New York’s Democrat governor, revealed that her state was ramping up social media surveillance efforts in response to rising antisemitism and Islamophobia.

She made the announcement Monday that the state is “very focused on the data we’re collecting from surveillance efforts” in response to a rise in incidents stemming from Israel’s war against Hamas.

“We have launched an effort to be able to counter some of the negativity and reach out to people when we see hate speech being spoken about on online platforms,” Hochul elaborated.

“Our media analysis, our social media analysis unit, has ramped up its monitoring of sites to catch incitement to violence, direct threats to others,” she added.

The increase in surveillance, she said, jumped primarily after the mass shooting in Buffalo in May of last year.

“If anyone thinks that they can get away with spreading hate and harming other New Yorkers and violating the law, you will be caught,” Hochul warned.

Hochul also said the state will increase staffing to the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Joint Terrorism Task Forces and that she will deploy state police to protect places of worship.

Newsmax has reached out to the New York governor’s office.

The move comes months after a federal judge blocked a New York law prohibiting hate speech on social media as a violation of the First Amendment.

New York’s law would have required social media websites to make it easy for users to report “incidents of hateful conduct” and to respond to complaints explaining how the matter is being handled.