A California campaign for the 2027 legislative session

A lie about you online can stay up forever. California can change that.

Right to Remove is a campaign for state laws that give people targeted by false and abusive posts a fast, affordable way to prove it in court and get it taken down.

Sign the petition Share your story

your full name

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Your Name, Project Manager

Experience, education and recommendations.

exposedreport.example › profile

Your Name exposed: the truth about this scammer

Anonymous post with false claims, a home address and a payment link.

Ruled false. Removed.

yourtown.example › news

Local volunteers honored at annual dinner

Community award winners for 2026.

The problem

Anyone can publish it. Only you have to disprove it.

If someone posts false claims about you, the websites and search engines that carry them are not responsible, the poster is often anonymous, and the cost of clearing your name falls entirely on you.

41%

of U.S. adults have personally experienced online harassment.

Pew Research Center, The State of Online Harassment, 2021

Sec. 230

The federal Communications Decency Act shields websites, hosts and search engines from liability for what their users post, so most have no legal reason to act.

47 U.S.C. § 230

You pay

To clear your name you must sue, often an anonymous poster, and prove the statements are false. In California, if the defendant wins an anti SLAPP motion, you can be ordered to pay their attorney fees.

Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 425.16

No order

Even a win may not be enough. California's Supreme Court held that Yelp could not be ordered to remove reviews a court had already found defamatory.

Hassell v. Bird, 5 Cal.5th 522 (2018)

The proposal

What we are asking California to pass

Each proposal targets content a court has found false, or conduct such as doxxing and extortion. None of it touches opinion, criticism or reporting.

Sec. 1Fast falsity ruling

A quick, low cost way to prove a post is false

A simple court process where a person can ask a judge to declare that a specific post about them is false. No money damages are at stake, so it can move fast, cost little, and work even when the poster is anonymous.

Why it works: Google already accepts court orders finding content defamatory as a basis to remove pages from its search results.

Sec. 2No pay to remove

No site may charge you to take down posts about you

Some sites publish damaging posts and then charge the person named to remove them. California already bans this for booking photos. We want the same rule for every kind of content.

Builds on: Cal. Civil Code § 1798.91.1 (mugshot removal fees)

Sec. 3Unmasking

A clear path to identify anonymous attackers

A defined, fast procedure for learning who is behind anonymous posts once a person shows a real, supported claim of defamation, doxxing or harassment, while protecting anonymous speech that is lawful.

Builds on: Krinsky v. Doe 6, 159 Cal.App.4th 1154 (2008)

Sec. 4Anti SLAPP fairness

Protect speech, not provable lies about private people

Keep anti SLAPP protection for speech on public issues, while ending fee awards against private individuals who bring good faith claims over statements that turn out to be false.

Amends: Cal. Code Civ. Proc. § 425.16

Sec. 5Doxxing and stalking

Enforce the laws against posting people's private information

Broaden and enforce California's electronic harassment law so that posting someone's home address, phone number or family details to provoke harassment carries real consequences.

Builds on: Cal. Penal Code § 653.2

Where this stands. These are policy proposals. Bill text is written by California's Legislative Counsel once a legislator agrees to author it. We are meeting with legislators now, ahead of the bill introduction deadline in early 2027.

Section 230 is federal law, so California cannot override it. These proposals are designed to work within it and within the First Amendment, because false statements of fact that a court finds defamatory are not protected speech.

Get help now

If it is happening to you today

We are a policy campaign and cannot give legal advice. These are the routes that work right now, depending on what was posted.

Search results about you

Google removes certain personal information, doxxing, intimate images and pages from sites that charge for removal.

support.google.com

Intimate images, adults

Under the federal TAKE IT DOWN Act, covered platforms must remove reported intimate images within 48 hours. StopNCII helps block them across platforms.

stopncii.org