Elon Musk’s X Takes New York to Court Over Rules Mandating Them To Disclose Polices For Monitoring Hate Speech

Elon Musk’s X Corp has filed a federal lawsuit against New York, challenging the state’s new law—the Stop Hiding Hate Act—which mandates social media companies to publicly disclose their policies for monitoring hate speech, disinformation, extremism, harassment, and foreign political interference. Filed in Manhattan federal court on June 17, the suit argues that the law violates both the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment and New York’s state constitution. “This is not a role that the government may play,” the complaint states, insisting that “deciding what content is acceptable on social media platforms engenders considerable debate among reasonable people about where to draw the correct proverbial line.”

The law, authored by Democratic State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal and Assemblymember Grace Lee with support from the Anti-Defamation League, was signed by Governor Kathy Hochul in December. It requires platforms to outline their efforts to reduce hate speech and report their progress, with potential civil penalties of up to $15,000 per violation per day.

X’s legal team claims that the law would coerce the company into revealing policies on “highly sensitive and controversial speech” simply to avoid state penalties, setting a precedent that could chill free expression. They also cite a similar 2023 California law that was partially blocked by a federal appeals court over similar First Amendment issues. California later agreed not to enforce that law’s reporting requirements after a February settlement with X.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, the defendant in the case, had not responded publicly at the time of filing. However, the legislators who sponsored the law said in a joint statement that they are confident the law will hold up in court. “The fact that Elon Musk would go to these lengths to avoid disclosing straightforward information to New Yorkers,” Hoylman-Sigal and Lee said, “only underscores the importance of this legislation.”

Musk, a self-described “free speech absolutist,” removed most content moderation rules after acquiring Twitter (now X) in 2022 for $44 billion. The case is X Corp v. James, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 25-05068.

Link: Reuters