File photo. (REUTERS/Arnd Wiegmann)
New York’s revenge-porn bill died early Thursday morning after the Senate adjourned for the year and took no action in the wake of an 11th-hour campaign by Google against the legislation.
The proposal — which has languished in Albany since its introduction in 2013 and was recently taken up again after a Post exposé — would have made nonconsensual dissemination of sexually explicit images a misdemeanor punishable by up to a year in jail.
It would have also helped victims sue Web hosts to remove the offending images.
But Google mounted a late effort against the bill, with the Internet behemoth opposed to any government oversight over how it regulates content.
Attorney Carrie Goldberg, who’d been leading lobbying efforts for the bill, was livid that senators went home without even taking a vote, effectively killing the legislation until next year.
The only long-shot chance for the bill is if lawmakers decide to come back for a special session, though there’s been no talk of that.
“It’s deeply disturbing that Google and tech lobbyists were quiet as a church mouse for the five years this bill has been percolating in Albany and then literally the morning it’s up for vote, they bulldoze in with coercive demands on our lawmakers to change the language,” Goldberg said.
“It’s a disgrace how weak our lawmakers look for bowing down to these tech corporate overlords.”
The Internet Association — an influential lobbying group working on behalf of Google and a host of other Web sites used to disseminate revenge porn — fought the bill, which has passed the Assembly but needed Senate approval.
Gov. Cuomo had pledged to sign the bill, had the proposal made it to his desk.
The legislation’s sponsor, state Sen. Phil Boyle (R-Bay Shore) said he plans to continue to push for the bill’s passage.
But Boyle’s pledge didn’t placate Goldberg, who accused lawmakers of being in the pocket of “Big Tech.”
“There could be no better showing of what unfettered power big tech has on our government. It’s sickening. Any claims they make that big tech is aligned with victims of revenge porn are as hollow as Trump saying he’s aligned with separated immigrant families facing deportation,” she said.
“Big Tech, especially Google, created the revenge porn problem. And now, just as we were about to enable victims to demand removal of their most intimate material from the internet via this law, Google renews its abuse.”
A rep for Google could not be reached for comment.
Additional reporting by Julia Marsh, Max Jaeger and David K. Li
This article originally appeared on the New York Post.
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