Lawmakers Rip Musk And Trump For Spreading ‘Hate Speech’ After X Sues Over New Law

Two New York state lawmakers called out billionaire Elon Musk and President Donald Trump and accused them of spreading hate speech online after Musk’s X, formerly Twitter, filed a lawsuit Tuesday challenging a New York law that requires social media platforms to be transparent about how they monitor online hate.

The state law, known as the Stop Hiding Hate Act, was first introduced in 2023 by New York Assemblymember Grace Lee and state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal, with the intent of holding “social media companies accountable for eliminating harmful content on their platforms.” It’s slated to go into effect on Thursday.

“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 lawmakers’ statement read.

New York Assemblymember Grace Lee and state Sen. Brad Hoylman-Sigal called out Elon Musk and President Donald Trump after Musk's social media platform X filed a lawsuit challenging their hate speech law.

AP Photo/Evan Vucci

The legislation will require social media companies to submit reports on their terms of service to the New York State Attorney General. The reports must include statements on whether the terms of service define hate speech, racism, extremism, radicalization, disinformation, misinformation, harassment, and foreign political interference — and if so, how they define those words.

Companies will also be required to report how they enforce policies related to flagged content.

However, X’s lawsuit argues that the New York law violates the First Amendment by compelling companies to disclose “highly sensitive and controversial speech” and interferes with editorial decisions “to remove, demonetize, or deprioritize such speech on their platforms.”

Lawyers representing X in the lawsuit did not immediately respond to HuffPost’s request for comment.

A spokesperson for New York Attorney General Letitia James, who is named in the lawsuit, told HuffPost in an email that her office is “reviewing the complaint filed by X and stand[s] ready to defend the constitutionality of our laws.”

In their statement, Lee and Hoylman-Sigal said they were proud of sponsoring the Stop Hiding Hate Act “because social media companies, including X, are cesspools of hate speech consisting of antisemitism, racism, Islamophobia and anti-LGBTQ bias.”

The lawmakers said they’re confident that the court will reject X’s attempt to use the First Amendment as an argument, stating their law allows “consumers to better decide which social media platforms they utilize.”

“The fact that Elon Musk would go to these lengths to avoid disclosing straightforward information to New Yorkers as required by our statute illustrates exactly why we need the Stop Hiding Hate Act,” Lee and Hoylman-Sigal wrote.