Elon Musk’s X (formerly Twitter) has sued New York over a regulation it had successfully challenged in California.

The Associated Press reported that X on Tuesday sued to try to stop New York from requiring reports on how social media platforms handles problematic posts.

New York is already targetting social media platforms. In February 2024 New York filed a lawsuit against ByteDance (TikTok), Instagram, Meta (Facebook), Snapchat and Google (YouTube), alleging these social media platforms are designed to exploit young users’ mental health and cost the city $100 million in related health programs and services each year.

New York requirement

According to AP New York’s law about how it deals with problematic posts, was signed by Democratic Governor Kathy Hochul late in 2024.

It is poised to take effect later this year.

Now according to AP, X maintains that the New York requirement impinges on free speech rights and on a 1996 federal law that, among other things, lets internet platforms moderate posts as they see fit.

New York is improperly trying “to inject itself into the content-moderation editorial process” by requiring “politically charged disclosures” about it, X reportedly argues in the suit.

“The state is impermissibly trying to generate public controversy about content moderation in a way that will pressure social media companies, such as X Corp., to restrict, limit, disfavour or censor certain constitutionally protected content on X that the state dislikes,” the suit, filed in federal court in Manhattan, reportedly states.

New York Attorney General Letitia James’ office didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment on the case, AP reported.

Essentially, the New York law requires social media companies to report twice a year on whether and how they define hate speech, racist or extremist content, disinformation and some other terms.

The platforms also have to detail their content moderation practices and data on the number of posts they flagged, the actions they took, the extent to which the offending material was seen or shared, and more.

Free speech

Elon Musk is well known for his belief in ‘free speech‘.

But in December 2023 X lost a legal bid to block California law that required social media to publicly disclose their content moderation practices.

However in Autumn 2024 a panel of federal appellate judges blocked portions of the California law, at least temporarily, on free speech grounds.

The state subsequently settled, agreeing not to enforce the content-moderation reporting requirements.

Content moderation

Elon Musk’s decision in January 2023 to axe most of Twitter’s external content moderation teams, along with 80 percent of the Twitter workforce, had proved to be controversial.

In August 2023 X reorganised the reporting structure of its trust and safety team, to report to both owner Elon Musk and CEO Linda Yaccarino.

Meanwhile on this side of the pond, the European Union previously named Musk’s X as being the largest spreader of Russian lies and propaganda, out of all large social media platforms, and the EU has began an investigation into X over its content moderation practices.