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Elon Musk’s X has lost its attempt to block a California law that requires social media companies to disclose their content-moderation policies.
AB 587 was signed by California Governor Gavin Newsom in 2022 and requires companies to reveal their policies on hate speech, disinformation, and harassment and report data on their enforcement of those policies.
According to X—which sued in September—the law’s intent was “to pressure social media platforms to ‘eliminate’ certain constitutionally protected content viewed by the state as problematic.” Musk claimed the law violated the First Amendment and the California Constitution by encouraging social media to remove posts that make politically charged statements.
US District Judge William Shubb disagreed. “While the reporting requirement does appear to place a substantial compliance burden on social medial companies, it does not appear that the requirement is unjustified or unduly burdensome within the context of First Amendment law,” he wrote in his order, Bloomberg reports.
Musk has come under fire for increased hate speech on Twitter since he acquired the company. Earlier this year, Musk threatened to sue the Anti-Defamation League for highlighting the rise of such content. He later appeared to endorse antisemitic posts on the platform, leading many advertisers to stop or pause their spending on the site. Musk's response? "Go fuck yourself."