Musk’s X sues New York over disclosure law

MANHATTAN (CN)  — The social media company X Corp., formerly Twitter, filed a lawsuit on Tuesday in New York federal court against Empire State Attorney General Letitia James, challenging the constitutionality of a state law that requires social media companies to publicly divulge how they monitor hate speech, extremism, harassment, disinformation, and foreign political interference.

Represented by Joel Kurtzberg of Cahill Gordon & Reindel, X argues that New York’s “Stop Hiding Hate Act” violates its free speech rights under the U.S. and state constitutions by threatening lawsuits and fines unless it discloses content the state may deem objectionable. The Texas-based company seeks a ruling striking down the law’s content reporting requirements.

The provision requires social media companies to disclose how their platforms define and moderate hate speech or racism, extremism or radicalization, disinformation or misinformation, harassment and foreign political interference.

“The Content Category Report Provisions are an impermissible attempt by the State to inject itself into the content-moderation editorial process,” Musk’s company wrote in the civil complaint. “By requiring detailed disclosures about how certain controversial content is moderated, the State is impermissibly compelling social media companies to make disclosures about how their editorial processes work.”

X Corp. further accuses New York in the suit of “impermissibly trying to generate public controversy about content moderation in a way that will pressure social media companies, such as X Corp., to restrict, limit, disfavor, or censor certain constitutionally protected content on X that the State dislikes.”

A spokesperson for the New York Attorney General said: “We are reviewing the complaint filed by X and stand ready to defend the constitutionality of our laws.”

Governor Kathy Hochul signed the “Stop Hiding Hate” Act into law last December, in collaboration with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) and modeled after a similar California law. The bill was sponsored by Democratic State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal and Assembly Member Grace Lee.

“Social media companies have created an environment where hate and disinformation spread like wildfire,” Lee wrote when the act was signed into law. “Algorithms that prioritize the most attention-grabbing posts often amplify hateful language, giving it a massive platform. These companies have a responsibility to protect users from this hate, but have failed to do so. The Asian community was deeply affected by this phenomenon during COVID, as hateful conspiracy theories spread online, fueling real-world hate crimes.”

X Corp. previously sued Minnesota and California in similar actions over each state’s respective election disinformation laws.

Musk’s company says the New York reporting requirements on prominent social media companies violate the First Amendment for all of the reasons that the Ninth Circuit concluded that the content category report provisions of California’s law likely violated the First Amendment.

X Corp. and the state of California reached a legal agreement in February, concluding their ongoing dispute, with the state conceding that one of its social media laws violated the First Amendment.

Researchers found hate speech on Twitter skyrocketed immediately after Musk purchased the social media company in April 2022.

Researchers at the Center for Countering Digital Hate found that the number of tweets containing one of several different racial slurs soared in the week after Musk bought Twitter.

A racial epithet targeting Black people appeared over 26,000 times on X, three times the 2022 average. Slurs against trans people rose 53%, and use of an offensive term for homosexual men increased 39%.

Ahead of the November election, Elon Musk became a vocal supporter of Trump, promoting X as a haven for free speech. After leading the Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE) during the first five months of Trump’s second term, Musk stepped down last month as a top adviser.

Follow @jruss_jruss