Reuters reports that Elon Musk has failed in impeding a California legislation that requires X to disclose content moderation data, the court ruled it was not in violation of the first amendment free speech rights as previously argued by Musk last September.
The Hollywood Reporter adds to the story stating that on Thursday, U.S. District Judge William Shubb dismissed X's plea for a preliminary injunction, ruling that the reporting requirements are neither unwarranted nor unreasonably onerous under First Amendment principles.
While compliance may impose a significant burden, he determined that the necessary disclosures are uncontroversial and just necessitate the identification of current content control measures.
(Photo : Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images)
C.E.O. of Tesla, Chief Engineer of SpaceX and C.T.O. of X Elon Musk speaks during the New York Times annual DealBook summit on November 29, 2023 in New York City.
Furthermore, the judge ruled in favor of the state, concluding that it had completed its burden of demonstrating that the reporting requirements were fairly connected to a strong government interest in compelling social media businesses to be honest about their content moderation policies and practices.
According to him, the law is meant to provide consumers the option to make informed decisions about where they consume and disseminate news.
According to reports, the judgment rejected claims that the act is preempted by section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, Big Tech's preferred legal shield that has historically provided businesses with significant legal protection from liability as third-party publishers.
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California's Content Moderation Law
The law reportedly compels social media businesses with a significant amount of gross yearly income to publish semiannual reports that detail their content moderation processes and offer information on the quantity of offensive posts and how they were dealt.
More specifically, the legislation reportedly demands that content moderation procedures on each platform be reported on how it handles hate speech or racism, extremism or radicalization, disinformation or misinformation, harassment, and foreign political intervention.
As per a separate Reuters report, the legislation states that companies must also provide copies of their terms of service. Failure to comply might result in civil penalties of up to $15,000 per violation per day.
X's Content Moderation Protests
According to CNBC, X has previously protested the content moderation law even before Musk's acquisition of the social media platform as Twitter lobbyists secretly visited with state officials, including Democratic Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel, who sponsored the original measure, in the months prior Musk's acquisition, to raise their worries about the proposed legislation.
Reuters states that X has come under fire for its content filtering policies, prompting several businesses to suspend advertising on the network. According to third-party statistics released to Reuters in October, since Musk took over X in October 2022, its monthly U.S. ad income has plummeted at least 55% year on year.
In Europe, the social networking platform is also under review. The European Union said earlier this month that it was investigating X for potential violations of requirements, including posts related to Hamas assaults on Israel. This is the EU's first investigation under the Digital Services Act (DSA).
Related Article: X Filled With Disinformation and Fake News About Israel-Hamas War
