Elon Musk’s X can’t get around California’s content moderation law, judge rules


Elon Musk on a blue backdrop surrounded by downward pointing arrows
Illustration by Kristen Radtke / The Verge; Getty Images

A federal judge has denied X’s (formerly Twitter) attempt to temporarily halt a California law that pushes social media platforms to disclose their strategies for moderating harmful content.

Passed last year, AB 587 requires large social media companies to share descriptions of how they moderate content that contains hate speech or racism, extremism or radicalization, disinformation, harassment, and foreign political interference. In a complaint filed in September, X argued that the law violates the First Amendment right to free speech.

The company formerly known as Twitter failed to make its case. US District Judge William Shubb denied X’s request for a preliminary injunction of the law. “While the reporting requirement does appear to...

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