New York: NYC official attempts to jawbone the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission into severing Newsmax partnership with Curb

On January 21, 2026, Manhattan Borough President Brad Hoylman-Sigal sent a letter urging NYC Mayor Zohran Mamdani to “summarily suspend” the NYC Taxi and Limousine Commission’s contract with Curb, which makes interactive TV screens for taxi cabs, until it drops Newsmax as a vendor. Curb has a contract with Newsmax to provide one-minute news updates for its taxi screens. Hoylman-Sigal questioned Newsmax’s credibility and claimed it has biased coverage of the ICE protests.  The NYC TLC defended the partnership with Newsmax and claimed the ads did not violate any of its policies. 

On February 6, FIRE wrote the NYC TLC commending it for resisting the jawboning attempt by Hoylman-Sigal, explaining that jawboning and viewpoint discrimination violate the First Amendment.