NEW YORK (Reuters) -Elon Musk's X Corp sued New York on Tuesday, challenging the constitutionality of a state law requiring social media companies to disclose how they monitor hate speech, extremism, disinformation, harassment and foreign political interference.
X said the law known as the Stop Hiding Hate Act violated the First Amendment and state constitution by subjecting it to lawsuits and heavy fines unless it disclosed "highly sensitive and controversial speech" that New York may find objectionable.
Deciding what content is acceptable on social media platforms "engenders considerable debate among reasonable people about where to draw the correct proverbial line," X said. "This is not a role that the government may play."
The complaint filed in Manhattan federal court also quoted a letter from two legislators who sponsored the law, which said X and Musk in particular had a "disturbing record" on content moderation "that threatens the foundations of our democracy."
New York Attorney General Letitia James, a Democrat who enforces the state's laws, is the named defendant in X's lawsuit. Her office did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Musk, the world's richest person and recently a close adviser to Republican President Donald Trump, has described himself as a free speech absolutist.
He did away with the content moderation policy of Twitter, as X was previously known, after he bought the company for $44 billion in October 2022.
New York's law requires social media companies to disclose steps they take to eliminate hate on their platforms, and to report their progress. Civil fines could reach $15,000 per violation per day.
The law was written by state Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal and Assemblymember Grace Lee, both Democrats, with help from the Anti-Defamation League. It was signed in December by Governor Kathy Hochul, also a Democrat.
X said New York based its law on a nearly identical 2023 California law whose enforcement was partially blocked by a federal appeals court last September because of free speech concerns.
California agreed in a February settlement with X not to enforce the law's disclosure requirements.
In a joint statement, Hoylman-Sigal and Lee said they were confident a judge would uphold New York's content moderation law.
"The fact that Elon Musk would go to these lengths to avoid disclosing straightforward information to New Yorkers" shows why the law is necessary, the legislators said.
The case is X Corp v James, U.S. District Court, Southern District of New York, No. 25-05068.
(Reporting by Jonathan Stempel in New York; Editing by Chizu Nomiyama, Bill Berkrot and Nick Zieminski)
