Elon Musk Sues California Over Content Moderation Law
Elon Musk doesn’t want to talk about how X moderates content on the site so much that he’s suing the state of California over it.
Last year California Governor Gavin Newsom signed into law AB587, a bill that requires social media companies to disclose to the public their policies on things like hate speech and disinformation on their platforms as well as report data on the enforcement of those policies. The bill was first introduced in 2021 but took close to two years to pass in California courts due to pushback from social media companies.
Musk claims that the law violates the First Amendment and the California Constitution by encouraging the company to remove posts from users making politically charged statements.
The law “compels companies like X Corp. to engage in speech against their will, impermissibly interferes with the constitutionally-protected editorial judgments of companies such as X Corp., has both the purpose and likely effect of pressuring companies such as X Corp. to remove, demonetize, or deprioritize constitutionally-protected speech,” the company said in the complaint.
Jesse Gabriel, the author of the bill, says that if Twitter/X has nothing to hide, then they shouldn’t have any objections to the bill.
“Assembly Bill 587 is a pure transparency measure that simply requires companies to be upfront about if and how they are moderating content. It in no way requires any specific content moderation policies – which is why it passed with strong, bipartisan support,” said Gabriel said in an emailed statement.
Musk has come under fire for increased hate speech on the site since his acquisition of the company. Those concerns have led to several advertisers leaving the platform, especially in recent months.
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