Elon Musk's X sues California due to content moderation law

Elon Musk’s X Corp. has sued California to undo the state’s law of requiring social media companies to explain how they moderate their content, which is aimed at exposing sources of hate speech and disinformation. X, which used to operate the social network platform Twitter, said in a lawsuit that the law interferes with its editorial judgments that should rightfully be protected as free speech under the Constitution.

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California’s Governor, Gavin Newsom said when he signed AB 587 last year that it was designed to protect the public by demanding companies reveal their policies on hate speech, disinformation, harassment and extremism on their platforms, and report data on their enforcement of the policies. “California will not stand by as social media is weaponized to spread hate and disinformation that threaten our communities and foundational values as a country,” he added.

However, the lawsuit claimed that the true intent is law “to pressure social media platforms to ‘eliminate’ certain constitutionally protected content viewed by the state as problematic.”

Musk, who deems himself a defendant of free speech said, when he acquired Twitter, that it would be free of censorship. Therefore, in a supposed fight for fee speech the lawsuit said that “X Corp. is being forced to adopt the State’s politically-charged terms, which is a form of compelled speech in and of itself.”  

Earlier this year in July, X sued nonprofit organisation, Centre for Countering Digital Hate, which tracks hate speech. The letter in which it sued the centre accused it of making a series of troubling and baseless claims that appear calculated to harm X and its advertising business. Musk revealed in July this year that X saw a 50% drop in advertising revenue along with a heavy debt load resulting in a negative cash flow.

"Need to reach [a] positive cash flow before we have the luxury of anything else," Musk said in a tweet. He was responding to a tweet by a user suggesting that he gets a consortium together who understands his vision for the platform. The user suggested that Musk get the consortium to buy the debt and to then do a tender or exchange offer for convertible notes with more favourable terms.

After the drop in numbers, X signed a new deal with global media measurement and optimisation platform Integral Ad Science (IAS) to provide brands with enhanced safety tools as it looks to bring advertisers back onboard. 

The exclusive partnership was revealed by IAS in a statement and will provide advertisers with its pre-bid brand safety and suitability product across the social media platform.

This product provides marketers with greater control and optimisation of their quality media investments. IAS also provides third-party affirmation that brands running ads on X are appearing in brand safe and suitable environments as defined by the Global Alliance for Responsible Media (GARM) framework.

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