Elon Musk’s X Corp filed a lawsuit against the state of California on Friday in response to a state law mandating social media companies to post their policies for handling hate speech, harassment, disinformation, and extremism.
X, a social media company formerly known as Twitter, claimed that Assembly Bill 587 violates its First Amendment and California state constitution rights to free speech.
California is compelling businesses to endorse the state’s positions on politically hot matters, which X describes as “a form of compelled speech in and of itself.” Elon Musk, a self-described free speech absolutist, laid off numerous personnel responsible for monitoring and regulating content after purchasing Twitter for $44 billion in October. The Company restored some accounts that previous management had suspended. Since Musk took over, the Anti-Defamation League and the Center for Countering Digital Hate have reported a rise in the volume of hate speech on X targeting Jews, Black people, homosexual men, and trans people.
Musk laid off thousands of employees after buying Twitter
Musk, the world’s richest person, also leads Tesla, an electric car firm, and SpaceX, a space exploration corporation. California Attorney General Rob Bonta’s office, which enforces state laws, has stated that it will reply to the complaint in court. According to AB 587, social media businesses with at least $100 million in gross annual revenue must publish semiannual reports that detail their content moderation processes and offer data on the number of offensive posts and how they were dealt with. Companies must also give copies of their terms of service under the law. Failure to comply might result in civil penalties of up to $15,000 per violation per day. California’s Democratic governor, Gavin Newsom, signed the bill in September, saying the state will not allow social media to be “weaponized” to propagate hate and misinformation.
Musk laid off thousands of employees after buying Twitter, and on Monday blamed critics, including the ADL for a 60% decline in U.S. advertising revenue. A.J. Brown, who quit in June as X’s head of brand safety and ad quality, said in a recent interview that Musk’s policy changes that limited the exposure of problematic posts on X rather than eliminating them made it impossible to convince advertisers that the site was safe. The case is X Corp v Bonta, No. 23-at-00903 in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California.