Hyderabad/San Francisco: X, formerly Twitter, has lost its bid to block a California content moderation law on Friday. A judge in the US ruled that Elon Musk-run X cannot avoid a California law that asks social media platforms to disclose their plans for moderating harmful content and misinformation.
United States District Judge William Shubb has denied X's request for a preliminary injunction of the law and ruled the law’s reporting requirements should be considered corporate speech.
"The mere fact that the reports may be ‘tied in some way to a controversial issue’ does not make the reports themselves controversial,” Shubb wrote in his judgment. "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 added.
What is the law? The AB 587 law requires large social media companies to share descriptions of how they moderate content that contains hate speech or racism, extremism or radicalisation, disinformation, harassment, and foreign political interference.
X argument- In a complaint filed in September, X argued that the law violates the First Amendment right to free speech. The company claimed the California law violated its free speech rights by requiring it to publicly post its policies and report data on hate speech, disinformation, harassment, and extremism online.
X said that it’s “difficult to reliably define” what constitutes hate speech, misinformation, and political interference. The company also alleged that AB 587 would force social media platforms to " 'eliminate' certain constitutionally-protected content.
"California Governor Gavin Newsom last year signed a law aimed at making social media platforms monitor hate speech, extremism, harassment, and other objectionable behaviours.
AB 587 requires social media companies to post their terms of service online, as well as submit a twice-yearly report to the state attorney general, according to reports. (With IANS Inputs)
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