Elon Musk’s social media company X Corp reportedly sued New York Attorney General Letitia James in Manhattan federal court on Tuesday, saying the state’s “Stop Hiding Hate” law tramples the First Amendment by forcing platforms to reveal how they police user speech.
The law, modeled after a now-revised California measure, requires large social networks to publish their content moderation rules and file twice-yearly reports to the attorney general detailing “hate speech” removals, “disinformation” takedowns and other enforcement actions. X argues the disclosures mandate mirrors the California law a federal appeals court partially blocked last year, according to Reuters.
Defining the boundaries of acceptable discourse online “engenders considerable debate among reasonable people about where to draw the correct proverbial line,” the company wrote in its filing, according to Reuters. “This is not a role that the government may play.”
The full filing is not yet publicly available, while X did not respond to a request for comment.
The law obliges any platform with New York users to post plain-language terms of service, spell out how it defines hate or “misinformation,” and submit granular data on flagged posts, appeals and takedowns each April and October.
James, reportedly the lone defendant, did not respond to a request for comment.
Supporters — including the Anti-Defamation League — say the transparency rules answer a surge in online “identity-based harassment,” while Democratic Gov. Kathy Hochul hailed the law at its December signing as “giv[ing] consumers the transparency and security they need and deserve.” Neither Hochul’s office nor the ADL responded to requests for comment.
X counters that the reporting scheme could result in New York suppressing speech it considers “highly sensitive and controversial” and stymy free debate, Reuters reported, echoing arguments the Ninth Circuit accepted when it froze enforcement of California’s AB 587 in September.
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