Senator Hoylman-Sigal and Assemblymember Lee: Statement on Elon Musk’s Lawsuit Challenging Their “Stop Hiding Hate” Act

Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal and Assemblymember Grace Lee, sponsors of the the Stop Hiding Hate Act (S895B/A6789B), issued the following statement in response to a legal challenge by Elon Musk’s X to their legislation requiring large social media companies to be transparent and accountable for their policies and moderation practices regarding online hate.

Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal and Assemblymember Grace Lee said: “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. 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. 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. 

We’re confident that the court will reject this attempt by X to use the First Amendment as a shield against providing New Yorkers with much needed transparency around their conduct, and uphold the Stop Hiding Hate Act as consistent with similar laws in other states that have already been found to be constitutional. 

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.”