In a recent court ruling, Elon Musk’s X Corp. was unsuccessful in its attempt to block a California law that aims to regulate harmful content on social media platforms.
The law requires companies to disclose their content-moderation policies as a means to control toxic posts. Despite arguments from X Corp., the federal judge in Sacramento rejected the company’s claims that the law violates the free-speech rights of social media platforms.
The ruling comes after Elon Musk sparked controversy in November by endorsing antisemitic posts on his platform.
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As a result, X Corp. faced significant backlash, with major advertisers like Sony, Discovery, Apple, and CBS pausing or stopping their spending on the site. In response, X Corp.’s CEO, Linda Yaccarino, worked to contain the fallout from the incident.
The California law, known as AB 587, was signed by Governor Gavin Newsom in 2022. Its purpose is to protect the public by demanding that companies reveal their policies on hate speech, disinformation, harassment, and extremism on their platforms.
Additionally, the law requires companies to report data on their enforcement of these policies.
X Corp. filed a lawsuit in September, claiming that the true intent of the law is to pressure social media platforms into eliminating constitutionally protected content deemed problematic by the state.
However, representatives from X Corp. and the office of California Attorney General Rob Bonta did not provide immediate comments on the ruling.
Notably, the US Supreme Court is currently considering whether laws in Florida and Texas, which are backed by Republicans, violate the free-speech rights of social media companies.
These laws restrict the platforms’ freedom to decide how the material is presented and require detailed explanations for content-moderation decisions. A ruling from the Supreme Court is expected in mid-2024.
Since Elon Musk acquired Twitter for $44 billion in 2022, he has been vocal about his commitment to a platform free of censorship.
He reinstated previously banned users and fired content moderators. However, researchers have noted an increase in harmful content on the platform during Musk’s tenure due to policy changes in content moderation.
To address the concerns and repair partnerships in the media industry, Musk hired Linda Yaccarino, a former NBCUniversal ad executive. Her role is to attract advertisers back to the platform.
Musk has attributed the decline in US advertising revenue on X to watchdog groups such as the Anti-Defamation League, the Center for Countering Digital Hate, and Media Matters for America.
He claims that these organizations have made false accusations about the platform being overloaded with harmful content. However, the organizations have denied Musk’s claims.
US District Judge William Shubb disagreed with X Corp.’s argument that the California law interferes with the company’s content screening process, stating that it does not violate the Constitution.
While acknowledging that the reporting requirement places a substantial compliance burden on social media companies, Judge Shubb deemed it justified and not unduly burdensome within the context of First Amendment law.
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