Elon Musk’s X Takes Legal Action Over Requirement to Implement Moderation Policies
On Friday, X Corp., led by Elon Musk, filed a lawsuit against the state of California for a law that mandates social media companies to publicly disclose their policies concerning hate speech, disinformation, harassment, and extremism.
X’s parent company, formerly known as Twitter, claimed in a federal lawsuit that the law, referred to as AB 587, infringes on its freedom of speech.
“The real purpose of AB 587 is to pressure social media platforms to remove certain constitutionally protected content that the state deems problematic,” the lawsuit alleged.
“The state forces social media companies to take public positions on controversial and politically charged issues.”
The lawsuit challenged a law that requires social media companies to publicly post hate speech, disinformation, harassment and extremism policies on their platforms and report data on how the policies are enforced.
“California will not stand by when social media is weaponized to spread hate and disinformation that threaten our communities and our core values as a country,” California Gov. Gavin Newsom said when he signed the law a year ago.
“Californians deserve to know how these platforms influence our public discourse, and this action will bring much-needed transparency and accountability to the policies that shape daily social media content.”
Musk said earlier this week that he is considering suing the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), a leading anti-hate group, claiming that its accusations of anti-Semitism have resulted in X losing revenue.
Musk accused the American Jewish organization of unfounded complaints against him and X, which has scared away advertisers.
“Advertisers avoid controversy, so all the ADL needs to do to crush our US and European ad revenue is to make baseless accusations,” Musk wrote in a lengthy X thread that began by clarifying that he supports free speech but opposes opposition. All kinds of antisemitism.”
In a 2016 report, the ADL said anti-Semitic attacks on journalists had exploded on Twitter “thanks to the rhetoric of the 2016 presidential campaign.”
It accused the social network of failing to control its “trawling problem”.
Billionaire Musk has been accused of fueling anti-Semitic tropes, including attacks on Jewish philanthropist George Soros.
According to the ADL and the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), problematic and racist speech has increased sharply on X since Musk completed its $44 billion purchase in October.
Since then, Tesla’s boss has fired thousands of platform workers, reduced content moderation and reinstated former president Donald Trump’s account.
Last month, Musk sued CCDH, accusing it of a smear campaign that damaged the social network’s relationship with advertisers.
