Elon Musk’s X, previously Twitter, lost its battle to overturn a California state law that requires social media companies to publicly disclose how they censor content on their sites.
Musk’s microblogging site sued California in September, attempting to overturn the content moderation rule; however, the request was denied by a judge.
The law and X’s counter-argument
The content moderation statute in California mandates social media businesses with a significant gross yearly revenue to provide semi-annual reports outlining their content moderation policies. It also compels them to submit information on the amount of offensive posts that were regulated and how they were dealt with.
However, the social networking platform claims that the California law violates its free expression rights under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution and California’s state constitution.
The decision of the Judge
In the eight-page decision, US District Judge William Shubb dismissed X’s request and said: “While the reporting requirement does appear to place a substantial compliance burden on social media companies, it does not appear that the requirement is unjustified or unduly burdensome within the context of First Amendment law.”
According to Reuters, Shubb considered the “terms of service” to be essential and stated that their inclusion may be a major deciding factor for users.
The “terms of service requirement” requires a social media corporation to display contact information for users to utilize if they have queries about the terms of service. A summary of the process that users must go through in order to flag content, as well as a list of potential measures that the platform may take against problematic content or the user who posted it.
Following the outbreak of the ongoing Middle East conflict between Israel and Hamas, social media sites like X were inundated with fraudulent photographs and inaccurate information.
Since Elon Musk’s acquisition of the social media behemoth in October 2022, X has been under fire for its moderation rules. Many major advertisers have even paused their advertisements on the platform due to this.