Elon Musk Sues NY to Block Social Media Hate Speech Law

X Corp, owned by Elon Musk, filed a lawsuit against New York in Manhattan federal court, challenging the constitutionality of the Stop Hiding Hate Act. 

Reuters reports the law mandates social media platforms to disclose their methods for monitoring hate speech, extremism, disinformation, harassment, and foreign political interference, with potential civil fines of $15,000 per violation per day. X argues the law violates the First Amendment and New York’s state constitution by compelling disclosure of “highly sensitive and controversial speech” that the state might deem objectionable, thus infringing on free speech rights.

X’s complaint asserts that determining acceptable online content is a complex issue best left to private platforms, not government intervention, stating, “This is not a role that the government may play.” It also cites a letter from the law’s sponsors, Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal and Assemblymember Grace Lee, both Democrats, who criticized X and Musk’s “disturbing record” on content moderation as a threat to democracy. 

The law, supported by the Anti-Defamation League and signed by Governor Kathy Hochul in December 2024, mirrors a 2023 California law partially blocked by a federal appeals court in September 2024 for similar free speech concerns, with California later agreeing not to enforce its disclosure requirements.

New York Attorney General Letitia James, the defendant in the lawsuit, had no immediate comment. Musk, a self-described free speech absolutist and advisor to President Donald Trump, eliminated Twitter’s content moderation policies after acquiring it for $44 billion in October 2022, rebranding it as X.