The NYCLU opposes S.1042 / A.3596, a bill that would amend New York’s existing revenge porn law to unconstitutionally criminalize publication of “intimate images created by digitization.” The bill violates the Constitution in several ways: First, it is analogous to a criminal defamation statute—a law that criminalizes one person’s false, damaging statement about another. Second, the bill is presumptively unconstitutional, as it criminalizes expression protected by the First Amendment. Lastly, the phrase “legitimate public purpose” is unconstitutionally vague in the context of a criminal statute, and likely to result in both uneven and arbitrary enforcement.
We urge members to vote against it.