Elon Musk sues New York AG over censorship

Elon Musk’s X sued New York Attorney General Letitia James on Tuesday over the state’s censorship of social media content, disguised as “hate speech” laws.

New York’s “Stop Hiding Hate” law, signed by Governor Kathy Hochul in January 2023, requires social media platforms like X to censor any content considered to be hate speech, racism, extremism, disinformation, misinformation, harassment, or foreign political inteference. Platforms are required to submit semiannual reports to New York’s attorney general containing a description of their censorship policies, the amount of content censored, and other data.

Musk, a self-described free speech absolutist, is accusing New York of violating the First Amendment rights of American users. The lawsuit argues that setting censorship guidelines for things like alleged hate speech and disinformation “engenders considerable debate among reasonable people about where to draw the correct proverbial line. . . This is not a role that the government may play.”

‘To allow consumers to better decide’

Proponents of the law, however, claim the censorship mandate is for the public good. Users deserve to know how social media companies are fighting racism, they argue. New York state Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal and Assemblymember Grace Lee, who sponsored the Stop Hiding Hate Act, blamed Musk and President Donald Trump for making censorship necessary.

“To be clear, the Stop Hiding Hate Act does not infringe upon the First Amendment rights of social media companies, nor does it conflict with federal law,” they said in a joint statement responding to X’s lawsuit. “Instead, the Stop Hiding Hate Act requires narrowly-tailored disclosures by social media companies to allow consumers to better decide which social media platforms they utilize. 

“Now more than ever, with the rise in political violence and threats emanating from the spread of hate speech and disinformation by President Trump and Elon Musk, New Yorkers deserve to know what social media companies like X are doing (or not doing) to stop the spread of hatred and misinformation on their platforms.”

The legislators said they had partnered with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL) to sponsor the bill, which was designed specifically to combat platforms like X.

“We were proud to sponsor the Stop Hiding Hate Act, in partnership with the Anti-Defamation League, because social media companies, including X, are cesspools of hate speech consisting of antisemitism, racism, Islamophobia and anti-LGBTQ bias, yet these platforms have consistently failed to inform the public about their policies regarding hatred and misinformation,” they said.

In the lawsuit, X’s attorneys note that a judge last year partially blocked a similar censorship law in California. 

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