Chilling speech of individuals or entities that criticize public officials. Among other things, making it easier for public officials to sue for defamation by requiring the fact-finder to infer actual malice if the information is based wholly on an unverified anonymous source. Expanding the tort of defamation to include a single utterance on the internet. Additionally, SB 1780 chills speech of individuals/entities that report or expose discrimination on the basis of race, sex, or gender by providing that any allegations of such discrimination are “defamation per se.” SB 1780 also abolishes the Journalist’s Privilege in defamation claims.
