X Corp., previously known as Twitter, filed the suit Friday in federal court in Sacramento arguing that the law set to take effect next year violates the free speech rights of social media companies under the U.S. and California constitutions.
Lawmakers portray the law, which passed easily last year as AB587, as promoting transparency but X Corp. argues that it goes beyond simple disclosure and requires companies to provide detailed information about how they evaluate and regulate ill-defined categories of political speech.
“AB 587 thus mandates X Corp. to speak about sensitive, controversial topics about which it does not wish to speak in the hopes of pressuring X Corp. to limit constitutionally-protected content on its platform that the state apparently finds objectionable or undesirable,” the suit says.
The legislation’s author countered that the law does not, in fact, require specific content moderation policies but only demands that companies report how they control what people see on their platforms.
“If Twitter has nothing to hide, then they should have no objection to this bill,” Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino) said in a statement responding to the suit.
In response to a proliferation of offensive and predatory content on X and other platforms, lawmakers in Sacramento and elsewhere have sought to increase the legal obligations of social media companies without encroaching on federal laws, including Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
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