Elon Musk’s new social media company, X Corp., filed a lawsuit against California’s attorney general on Friday, challenging a new law that requires social media platforms to remove harmful content and provide more transparency about their moderation practices.
California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed bill AB 587 into law last September., requires social media platforms with more than 250 million monthly users to remove content that is harmful to children, such as child sexual abuse material, and content that is likely to incite violence or hate speech.
The law also requires social media platforms to create a public report on their content moderation practices, including how they identify and remove harmful content.
Newsom’s office touted the bill as a way to improve transparency from social networks. But in a complaint filed in California’s Eastern District Court against California Attorney General Robert Bonta, X alleged that the law violates the First Amendment and California’s constitution by potentially compelling the company to moderate users’ politically charged speech.
X Corp., which is still in its early stages of development, alleges that the law is unconstitutional because it compels the company to engage in speech against its will. The company also argues that the law violates the First Amendment by interfering with the company’s editorial judgment about what content to remove.
In addition to the claims mentioned above, the lawsuit also alleges that the law is vague and could be interpreted to require social media platforms to remove content that is protected by the First Amendment, such as political speech.
The lawsuit is the latest legal challenge to the California law. A group of other social media companies, including Meta, Twitter, and Google, have also sued the state, arguing that the law is unconstitutional.
The California attorney general’s office declined to comment on the lawsuit.
The lawsuit is a major test of the California law, which is one of the strictest content moderation laws in the country. The outcome of the lawsuit could have implications for other states that are considering similar laws.
Also Elon Musk, has filed a lawsuit against the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) for libel, alleging that the nonprofit organization’s claims about rising hate speech on X have decimated the platform’s advertising revenue.
In a lawsuit filed in federal court in San Francisco, Musk claims that the ADL has made “false and defamatory statements” about X, including that the platform is “infested with hate speech” and that it is “a safe haven for white supremacists.” Musk says that these statements have caused X to lose advertisers and have damaged its reputation.
The ADL has not yet commented on the lawsuit. However, CEO Jonathan Greenblatt has previously spoken out against the #BanTheADL campaign on X, which has called for the organization to be banned from the platform.