Elon Musk’s X Sues California, Cites First Amendment Violation
By Movieguide® Contributor
Elon Musk’s X—formerly Twitter—recently sued California over a new law that violates the platform’s right to free speech.
The Guardian reported, “X, the social media platform once called Twitter, said the law, known as Assembly Bill 587, violates its free speech rights under the US constitution’s first amendment and California’s state constitution.”
“The law, Assembly Bill 587, requires social media companies to disclose their policies, including what content users are allowed to post on their platforms and how it responds when they violate the platform’s rules,” the Los Angeles Times wrote. “The companies are required to submit this information to the California attorney general by January 2024. The attorney general’s office would then make those reports public online.”
X’s lawsuit states, “The legislative record is crystal clear that one of the main purposes of AB 587 — if not the main purpose — is to pressure social media companies to eliminate or minimize content that the government has deemed objectionable.”
After filing the lawsuit, X said that the “true intent” of the new requirements was to force social media companies to eradicate any content that violates what the state deems offensive.
Jesse Gabriel, the bill’s author, said, “If Twitter has nothing to hide, then they should have no objection to this bill.”
“I’m very hopeful and optimistic that this lawsuit is not going to succeed and that the courts are ultimately going to find this law is constitutional,” he added. “We put a lot of thought into that.”
However, X’s lawsuit states that the bill “compels companies like X Corp. to engage in speech against their will,” per the Verge.
“X Corp.’s complaint explains that it’s ‘difficult to reliably define’ hate speech, misinformation, political interference, and other content categories. It adds that defining them is ‘often fraught with political bias’ because there’s no accepted consensus within the public sphere about what the terms mean,” the Verge added.
“…because X Corp. must take such positions on these topics as they are formulated by the State, X Corp. is being forced to adopt the State’s politically-charged terms, which is a form of compelled speech in and of itself,” the lawsuit reads.
Movieguide® previously reported on Musk’s efforts to promote free speech on the platform:
Elon Musk is joining Twitter’s Board of directors after acquiring a 9.2% stake in the company, making him the largest single shareholder.
Twitter CEO Parag Agrawal welcomed Musk to the company, tweeting, “I’m excited to share that we’re appointing @elonmusk to our Board! Through conversations with Elon in recent weeks, it became clear to us that he would bring great value to our Board.”
Agrawal continued, “He’s both a passionate believer and intense critic of the service which is exactly what we need on @Twitter, and in the boardroom, to make us stronger in the long-term. Welcome Elon!”
Musk replied, “Looking forward to working with Parag & Twitter board to make significant improvements to Twitter in coming months!”
The Tesla CEO joined the social media company after complaining that the company was “failing to adhere to free speech principles.”
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