Elon Musk Sues California For Censorship

X founder Elon Musk has filed a lawsuit against the state of California on Friday over a law requiring social media companies to publish its policies for removing “hate speech” and “misinformation.”

From the AP:

The first-of-its-kind legislation was signed into law a year ago by California Gov. Gavin Newsom. In a lawsuit filed Friday against state Attorney General Robert Bonta, X Corp. challenges the “constitutionality and legal validity” of the law, saying it violates the First Amendment.

The California law requires social media platforms to post their content moderation policies — which they already do — and twice a year submit a report to the state on how they address hate speech, racism, misinformation, foreign political interference and other issues.

The law, “compels companies to engage in speech against their will, impermissibly interferes with the constitutionally-protected editorial judgments of companies such as X Corp.” and has pressures companies to remove or demonetize “constitutionally-protected speech,” says the lawsuit, filed in federal court in California.

Democratic Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel, the author of the law in question called Assembly Bill 587, claimed it’s “a pure transparency measure that simply requires companies to be upfront about if and how they are moderating content. It in no way requires any specific content moderation policies – which is why it passed with strong, bipartisan support.”

“If Twitter has nothing to hide, then they should have no objection to this bill,” he added.

Musk said Friday that transparency is “no problem”, but he contends the state is policing free speech through the bill.

“Transparency is no problem. More of that would be great. But the government policing free speech in violation of the first amendment is not ok,” he wrote on X.

Transparency is no problem. More of that would be great.

But the government policing free speech in violation of the first amendment is not ok.

— Elon Musk (@elonmusk) September 8, 2023

The attorney general’s office said it will review the complaint and respond in court.