X, the company formerly known as Twitter, is suing California over a state law passed last year that lawmakers say aims to make social media platforms more transparent.

The law, Assembly Bill 587, requires social media companies to make public their policies, including what content users are allowed to post on their platforms and how they respond when they violate the platform’s rules. The companies

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required to provide this information to the California Attorney General by January 2024. The attorney general’s office would then make these reports public online.

In the lawsuit, filed Friday in a federal court in Sacramento, X claims the law violates the law

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The amendment protects freedom of expression and would put pressure on social media companies to moderate “constitutionally protected” speech that the state deems “undesirable or harmful.”

“The legislation makes it crystal clear that one of the primary purposes of AB 587, if not the primary purpose, is to pressure social media companies to eliminate or minimize content that the government deems objectionable,” the lawsuit said.

The lawsuit highlights the ongoing challenges lawmakers face as they try to make social media platforms safer amid concerns about hate speech, child sexual abuse and misinformation. It also comes after The company says it is limiting the reach of tweets that may violate its rules regulations that prohibit, but no longer formally publish, harassment, hateful conduct and other potentially harmful speech half-yearly reports about how it enforces that policy.

Content moderation, the practice of reviewing users’ posts and removing posts that violate standards, is a political issue. While Democrats say social media platforms have not done enough to moderate content, allowing harmful messages to spread, Republicans have accused these companies of censoring speech. NetChoice, which includes

Assemblymember Jesse Gabriel (D-Encino), who wrote the bill challenging

The law, he said, does not require companies to have content moderation policies and is purely about transparency.

“I am very hopeful and optimistic that this lawsuit will not be successful and that the courts will ultimately find that this law is constitutional,” he said. “We have thought about that carefully.”

The attorney general’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Social media platforms like X already announce what content users can and cannot post. But there are problems with costs.”

The lawsuit also claims it would burden social media companies with tracking their daily content moderation decisions. A social media company that violates the new law could also be liable for a fine of up to $15,000 per violation per day.

Since Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, the company has lost about 80% of its employees and struggled to attract more advertising dollars.