Kathy Hochul defends New York's teen social media rules, confirms data center moratorium

New York Governor Kathy Hochul sat down with The Verge's Decoder podcast for a wide-ranging, election-year interview covering AI, data centers, teen social media rules and gun policy. The conversation centers on a settlement Meta reached with 47 states, including New York, that restricts how teens use platforms like Instagram. Hochul strongly supports those restrictions, but the interviewer pressed her on the tradeoff: the settlement's age verification requirements mean adults will also have to show ID to use the internet, effectively ending anonymous access for everyone, not just minors. Hochul's response is that New York's own regulations already exceed what Meta agreed to. She says the state had already built roughly three years of reforms before the Meta settlement existed, including a ban on sending notifications to users under 18 between midnight and 6 a.m., a ban on addictive algorithms targeting young people, privacy controls that are switched on by default rather than left to parents to configure. She separately names limiting AI chatbots for minors, with disclaimers that they are not real people, as another area she believes tech needs to be regulated. Asked whether these amount to speech restrictions that could fail First Amendment scrutiny, Hochul rejects the framing outright: she argues that blocking overnight notifications to a 13-year-old is not a restriction on free speech, and says she is an attorney who does not act to violate constitutional rights. On guns, Hochul discusses New York's ban on 3D-printed gun parts, which activist Cody Wilson, who runs the largest database of 3D-printable gun files, is attempting to undercut by altering those files in a workaround he calls "Hochulization" to show the law is technically toothless; Hochul pushes back on that characterization in the interview. On data centers, Hochul confirms she signed a one-year moratorium on new data center construction in July, and the interviewer asks what conditions she wants in place before it expires to make data centers workable again; the visible transcript does not capture her answer. Hochul also touches on state government structure, saying she has been governor for five years, oversees 45 state agencies through a senior leadership team led by a secretary to the governor, and originally sketched her office's org chart on a legal pad rather than a whiteboard or software. On New York City politics, she is asked whether Mayor Zohran Mamdani's more confrontational approach toward billionaires and tech companies, including a recent move against Amazon's labor practices, is emboldening her toward stricter tech regulation; Hochul says she regulates only when necessary rather than as a default stance, and touts New York as the country's number one job creator for tech jobs, ahead of California, alongside claims that the state's tech hiring is outpacing San Francisco. The captured transcript cuts off mid-sentence during the First Amendment discussion, before reaching several topics the episode's introduction flags as covered later, including Flock surveillance cameras and more detail on the Mamdani org chart discussion.

Key facts

Meta settled with 47 states, including New York, over restrictions on how teens use platforms like Instagram; the deal's age verification requirement means adults will also need to show ID to use the internet.
Hochul says New York's own rules already exceed the Meta settlement, including a ban on notifications to under-18 users between midnight and 6 a.m. and privacy controls that are on by default.
Hochul signed a one-year moratorium on new data center construction in July and was asked, without a captured answer, what she wants in place before it expires.
Activist Cody Wilson is altering 3D-printed gun files in a process he calls "Hochulization" to argue New York's ghost-gun ban is technically toothless.
Hochul says New York has been named the country's number one job creator for tech jobs, surpassing California, even as NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani takes an aggressive regulatory stance toward companies like Amazon.

Why it matters

This is a sitting governor, in an election year, laying out where she stands on the two live fronts of state AI policy: data centers and teen safety online. New York's one-year construction moratorium and its stack of teen social media rules, adopted ahead of Meta's own multi-state settlement, are the kind of state-level moves other states watch when deciding whether to legislate or wait for federal action.

Who it affects

New York residents affected by the data center moratorium and the state's tech-jobs push; teenagers under 18 and their parents, who are covered by the notification blackout and default privacy settings, and for whom Hochul flags AI chatbot disclaimers as another area she believes needs regulation; adults in New York, who face age verification requirements as a side effect of the teen protections; 3D-printing and gun-rights activists challenging the ghost-gun ban; and tech and data center companies operating or looking to build in the state.

How to use it

Platforms serving New York teens must already implement the state's own rules, which Hochul describes as broader than Meta's settlement: no push notifications to under-18 users between midnight and 6 a.m., no addictive algorithms aimed at minors, and privacy controls defaulted on rather than opt-in. Hochul separately names disclaimers on AI chatbots for minors as another area she believes needs regulation. Anyone in New York, adult or teen, should expect age verification, meaning ID checks, to become part of using covered platforms. Data center developers in the state remain under a construction moratorium that Hochul signed in July and that runs one year from signing.

How solid is it

This comes directly from the governor in her own words on a named, on-record podcast interview, which is about as solid as attribution gets for stated positions. What is weaker is the evidentiary backing behind two specific claims she makes, that New York is the country's top tech job creator ahead of California and that its tech hiring outpaces San Francisco, since no supporting figures are given in the available transcript. The available text also cuts off mid-answer during the First Amendment exchange and before several topics the episode's introduction promises, including Flock cameras and more of the Mamdani org-chart discussion, so those portions cannot be summarized here.

Risks and caveats

The central tension Hochul does not fully resolve is the one the interviewer raises: protecting minors through age verification comes at the cost of adults losing the ability to use the internet anonymously. Her First Amendment defense, that blocking overnight notifications to a 13-year-old is not a speech restriction, is her own legal characterization and has not been tested in court. Separately, Cody Wilson's file-altering workaround suggests New York's 3D-printed gun ban may have a practical enforcement gap, a claim Hochul disputes but the interview does not resolve. Readers should also note the transcript available for this story is incomplete.

“We actually have laws in New York that are more restrictive than some of what Meta has agreed to.”

— Kathy Hochul, Governor of New York