Elon Musk’s X sues New York to block social media hate speech law

The opening page of X is displayed on a computer and phone in Sydney on Oct. 16, 2023. (Rick Rycroft / AP)

NEW YORK — Elon Musk’s X Corp sued New York on Tuesday, challenging the constitutionality of a state law requiring social media companies to disclose how they monitor hate speech, extremism, disinformation, harassment and foreign political interference.

X said the law known as the Stop Hiding Hate Act violated the First Amendment and state constitution by subjecting it to lawsuits and heavy fines unless it disclosed “highly sensitive and controversial speech” that New York may find objectionable.

Deciding what content is acceptable on social media platforms “engenders considerable debate among reasonable people about where to draw the correct proverbial line,” X said. “This is not a role that the government may play.”

The complaint filed in Manhattan federal court also quoted a letter from two legislators who sponsored the law, which said X and Musk in particular had a “disturbing record” on content moderation “that threatens the foundations of our democracy.”

New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat who enforces the state’s laws, is the named defendant in X’s lawsuit. Her office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Musk, the world’s richest person and recently a close adviser to Republican U.S. President Donald Trump, has described himself as a free speech absolutist.

He did away with the content moderation policy of Twitter, as X was previously known, after he bought the company for US$44 billion in October 2022.

New York’s law requires social media companies to disclose steps they take to eliminate hate on their platforms, and to report their progress. Civil fines could reach $15,000 per violation per day.

The law was written by state Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal and Assemblymember Grace Lee, both Democrats, with help from the Anti-Defamation League. It was signed in December by Gov. Kathy Hochul, also a Democrat.

X said New York based its law on a nearly identical 2023 California law whose enforcement was partially blocked by a federal appeals court last September because of free speech concerns.

California agreed in a February settlement with X not to enforce the law’s disclosure requirements.

A spokesman for Hoylman-Sigal had no immediate comment. Lee’s office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama and Bill Berkrot)

Jonathan Stempel, Reuters