Elon Musk’s X filed a lawsuit against New York over a law requiring social media companies to provide reports on how they manage hate speech.

The company alleges bill S895B, called the Stop Hiding Hate Act, violates the First Amendment.

“Today, @X filed a First Amendment lawsuit against a New York law, NY S895B. NY S895B is a new social media regulation that is a carbon copy of a California law, CA AB 587, that X successfully challenged in court under the First Amendment last year. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled the relevant portion of that law unconstitutional,” X’s Global Government Affairs account stated.

“Undeterred, New York’s government passed its own version of the unconstitutional California law, in order to pressure social media platforms to ‘eliminate’ certain speech the government doesn’t like. As with AB 587, X is the only platform fighting for its users by challenging the law, and we are confident we will prevail in this case as well. X will always fight for your right to express yourselves freely,” it added.

Today, @X filed a First Amendment lawsuit against a New York law, NY S895B. NY S895B is a new social media regulation that is a carbon copy of a California law, CA AB 587, that X successfully challenged in court under the First Amendment last year. The Ninth Circuit Court of…

— Global Government Affairs (@GlobalAffairs) June 17, 2025

The Guardian reports:

Musk’s lawyers argue that the law, which goes into effect this week, would require X to submit “highly sensitive information” and compel non-commercial speech, which is subject to greater first amendment protections. The complaint also opposes the possible penalty of $15,000 per violation per day for failing to comply with the law.

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The bill’s authors issued a statement on Tuesday rejecting Musk’s suit as an attempt to “use the First Amendment as a shield against providing New Yorkers with much needed transparency” and argued that the act does not infringe upon the free speech rights of social media companies.

X successfully sued last year to block a similar law in California, which also required social media companies to disclose to the government how they define hate speech and extremism. Since Musk bought Twitter in 2022, he has heavily downgraded content moderation efforts and fought against attempts at regulating the platform.

The Stop Hiding Hate Act was written by Brad Hoylman-Sigal, a New York state senator and Grace Lee, a state assemblymember, in cooperation with the Anti-Defamation League, with the intent of providing great transparency and accountability over harmful online speech. Lee and Hoylman-Sigal rejected a request last year from X to discuss and amend the bill, according to the state senator, on the grounds that they believed the company was not acting in good faith and only seeking to weaken the bill’s requirements.

X is suing New York over a law that forces platforms to disclose how they define and moderate categories like “hate speech,” “misinformation,” and “extremism.”

The company argues the law violates the First Amendment by coercing platforms into speech they don’t want to make,… pic.twitter.com/VC0aAmrLh2

— Reclaim The Net (@ReclaimTheNetHQ) June 17, 2025

From the Associated Press:

Since taking over the former Twitter in 2022, Musk, in the name of free speech, has dismantled the company’s Trust and Safety advisory group and stopped enforcing content moderation and hate speech rules that the site followed. He has restored the accounts of conspiracy theorists and incentivized engagement on the platform with payouts and content partnerships.

Outside groups have since documented a rise in hate speech and harassment on the platform. X sued a research organization that studies online hate speech – that lawsuit was dismissed last March.

The New York legislation took a page from a similar law that passed in California — and drew a similar lawsuit from X.

Last fall, 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.