Appeals Court Sides with Elon Musk’s X in Appeal Against California Law on Social Media Content Moderation
The social media platform X won an appeal on Wednesday to partially block a California law requiring social media companies to publish their policies regarding disinformation and hate speech. A panel from the 9th US Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco overturned a decision by a lower court judge who had previously declined to pause enforcement of the law, Reuters reported.
The California law mandates that social media companies disclose their processes for moderating content related to hate speech and misinformation. However, X argued that the law infringes on the First Amendment by forcing companies to publish such policies.
Elon Musk, owner of X, initially sued California in September of last year to prevent the law from being enforced, claiming it was a violation of free speech. The lawsuit was dismissed in December by US District Judge William Shubb, who ruled that the law was not “unjustified or unduly burdensome within the context of First Amendment law.”
However, the legal landscape shifted in May when the US Supreme Court ordered lower courts to re-evaluate whether content moderation laws in certain states could potentially violate the First Amendment.
Now, the appeals court has determined that the law’s requirements were “more extensive than necessary.”
“X Corp. is likely to succeed in showing that the Content Category Report provisions facially violate the First Amendment,” Judge Milan D. Smith, Jr. wrote in the decision.
The ruling marks a significant win for X and other social media platforms that have been fighting government overreach. It also comes as Musk and his platform are facing legal battles against the country of Brazil, which banned the platform entirely in the country.
