Protecting Harassment Victims

My CREEP Act would update anti-stalking laws for the internet era. My anti-SLAPP law would protect survivors who speak up.

The CREEP Act

The internet—particularly social media—has transformed our lives. But our laws haven’t always kept up.

I passed first-in-the-nation laws to protect children from addictive algorithms and predatory data collection. But there’s still more to do. We need to update our laws to protect victims of harassment in the era of cyberstalking, revenge porn, doxxing and deep fakes.

That’s why I’ve introduced the Ceasing Repeated and Extremely Egregious Predatory Behavior Act—a.k.a. The CREEP Act.

Right now, victims of stalking and harassment who want to secure restraining orders against their perpetrators must go through a slow-moving criminal investigation, a divorce proceeding, or through family court, which requires the victim to have a narrowly-defined, pre-existing "intimate relationship" with their harasser.

None of these pathways offer sufficient protection for victims of harassment in the modern age. Not only has the internet enabled new criminal behaviors like revenge porn and online stalking—it has altered the way we discover and define relationships. Many victims of these digital crimes need support in way that doesn’t fit family court’s narrow definition of intimate partner violence.

The CREEP Act follows the lead of 44 other states by creating a new anti-stalking order of protection through civil court. This new order of protection would allow courts to more quickly and more easily protect victims of digital harassment, providing faster support for victims without waiting for an arrest and better protecting those left behind by existing laws.

By creating this new, more easily obtained order of protection, my CREEP Act can modernize New York's laws to account for digital landscape where so much harassment now occurs.

Protecting Survivors from Being Silenced

Victims of sexual harassment and other discrimination often find themselves targets of defamation suits after they file complaints. These retaliatory tactics can force the victim to abandon their complaint or delay the harassment investigation, and deter other victims from coming forward.

I’ve introduced legislation to eliminate these nefarious suits by making them subject to New York's anti-SLAPP (Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation) statute, which helps fend off lawsuits intended to silence victims with the cost and ordeal of litigation.

If the defendant believes a lawsuit is intended to silence them, they can provide proof to the court that the claim relates to their exercise of free speech rights, and submit evidence while the discovery process is put on hold. The burden of proof then shifts to the plaintiff bringing the suit to show that the claim has a "substantial basis in law." If they can’t do so and the action is dismissed, the plaintiff must pay the defendant's attorney fees and litigation costs. 

By making frivolous defamation suits easier to dismiss and more likely to result in attorneys fees and other recompense for the defendant, victims of workplace discrimination will be better protected when they speak up.