Elon Musk’s social platform X (formerly Twitter) has filed a federal lawsuit against the state of New York, aiming to block the recently enacted “Stop Hiding Hate Act” (S895B). This law mandates that major social media platforms must submit biannual reports detailing how they detect, define, and moderate hate speech, extremist content, misinformation, harassment, and foreign political interference.
X contends that the law infringes the First Amendment and New York’s constitutional protection by forcing platforms to reveal internal editorial processes. The company argues that mandating disclosures about “politically charged” moderation decisions amounts to state intrusion into private content‑control choices—a function reserved for editors, not governments. The lawsuit seeks a court order to prevent the enforcement of the law, which imposes fines of up to $15,000 per day for non-compliance.
The legal action follows a similar case in California, where X successfully challenged a comparable statute; parts were blocked by a federal appeals court, and the state agreed to a settlement X has also sued Minnesota over deepfake regulations and faced scrutiny in Brazil and Europe over its moderation policies under Musk’s ownership
Inside X, Musk has dismantled parts of the prior moderation structure—like the Trust and Safety Council—and reinstated users previously banned for misinformation and extremism, drawing concern from critics about rising hate speech on the platform New York’s lawmakers maintain that full transparency is necessary to ensure social media platforms remain accountable .
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