Elon Musk X is suing California over content moderation bill – CNBC

Elon Musk, chief executive officer of SpaceX and Tesla and owner of Twitter, at the Viva Technology conference in Paris, France, June 16, 2023.Gonzalo Fuentes | ReutersBillionaire Elon Musk’s social media platform quietly waged a lobbying campaign to derail an online content moderation bill in California and is now suing the state, alleging First Amendment violations, according to disclosure reports and people familiar with the effort.Musk took control of X Corp., known at the time as Twitter, in October in a deal worth over $40 billion. In the months preceding Musk’s purchase, Twitter lobbyists privately met with state lawmakers, including Democratic Assemblyman Jesse Gabriel, who wrote the original bill, to voice their concerns about the proposed legislation, according to the records and a recent interview with the bill’s author.”Did they [the company] share concerns about this? 100%. But it was a very different tone and tenor than the lawsuit. They certainly had concerns but also shared their views on how to make the legislation more workable,” Gabriel said.Gabriel said the company’s change in tactics comes down to one reason: Musk’s purchase. “The interesting thing for me is what has changed — the acquisition of the company and the new leadership,”
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