TECH: Elon Musk’s X fails to block California’s content moderation law

Elon Musk’s company X, previously known as Twitter, faced a setback in its legal battle against a California state law regarding content moderation disclosures. The company’s effort to block this law, which mandates social media companies to publicly report on their content moderation practices, was dismissed by U.S. District Judge William Shubb.JAMB Portal

X had filed a lawsuit in September challenging the California law, arguing that it infringed upon its free speech rights as protected by the First Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and the California state constitution. The law in question requires social media companies with significant gross annual revenue to produce semiannual reports detailing their practices for moderating content, including data on the volume of objectionable posts and the actions taken to address them.NYSC Portal

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Judge Shubb’s eight-page decision to dismiss X’s request signifies a notable development in the ongoing debate over how social media companies manage and disclose their content moderation processes. This decision upholds the state’s law, affirming the requirement for greater transparency from social media platforms regarding how they handle user content, particularly content deemed objectionable.JAMB Result

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The ruling highlights the complexities and challenges tech companies face in balancing regulatory compliance with constitutional rights, especially in areas related to digital speech and platform governance.

“While the reporting requirement does appear to place a substantial compliance burden on social medial companies, it does not appear that the requirement is unjustified or unduly burdensome within the context of First Amendment law,” Shubb wrote.InformationGuideNigeria

Shubb will meet with the lawyers in the case on Feb. 26 for a scheduling conference.

Shubb held “terms of service” requirements of the law to be integral and said their presence could be a major deciding factor for users.

X has been under fire regarding its content moderation rules, with many companies pausing advertising on the platform. Since Musk took over X in October 2022, its monthly U.S. ad revenue declined at least 55% year-over-year each month, according to third-party data provided to Reuters in October.

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