Elon Musk’s X Corp is suing California over Assembly Bill 587, a content moderation law that compels social media firms to reveal their anti-disinformation policies as well as how they moderate harassment, hate speech, and extremism on their platforms. The corporation claims that the statute violates its right to free expression, which is guaranteed by both the US Constitution and the state constitution of California.
The law is designed to put pressure on social media sites to delete some constitutionally protected information deemed objectionable by the state. X believes that the law would certainly force it to erase, demonetize, or deprioritize information deemed unwanted or damaging by the state. California Governor Gavin Newsom signed the bill into law in November. In the six months following Musk’s acquisition, X’s compliance with government requests for censorship or monitoring increased to more than 80%.
