Elon Musk's X fails in its bid to block California's content moderation law
Elon Musk, X
Elon Musk's X, formerly Twitter, on Thursday failed in its bid to block a California state law that makes it mandatory for social media companies to publicly disclose how they moderate content on their platforms.
In September, Musk's microblogging platform sued California seeking to undo the content moderation law, however, a judge dismissed the request.
The law and X's argument against it
California's content moderation law requires social media companies with a sizeable gross annual revenue to issue semi-annual reports describing their content moderation practices. It also requires them to provide data on the number of objectionable posts moderated and how they were addressed.
However, the social media website argues that the California law infringes upon its free speech rights under the US Constitution's First Amendment and California's state constitution.
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The Judge's ruling
In the eight-page decision, US District Judge William Shubb dismissed X's request and said: "While the reporting requirement does appear to place a substantial compliance burden on social media companies, it does not appear that the requirement is unjustified or unduly burdensome within the context of First Amendment law."
Shubb, as per Reuters, also held the "terms of service" requirement as integral and said that their presence could be a major deciding factor for users.
The "terms of service requirement" mandates a social media company to post the contact information users can use to ask questions about terms of service. A description of the process users must follow to flag content; and a list of potential actions the platform may take against objectionable content or the user posting it.
Following the start of the ongoing war in the Middle East between Israel and Hamas, social media platforms, including X were flooded with fake images and misleading information.
Since Elon Musk's takeover of the social media giant in October 2022, X has been under fire for its moderation rules. Many major advertisers have even paused their advertisements on the platform due to this.
