Elon Musk’s social media platform on Wednesday prevailed in an appeal to largely overturn a California law that mandates social media companies to disclose their policies for countering hate speech, extremism, harassment, and misinformation. TakeAway Points: A California law mandating social media businesses to disclose their practices for countering misinformation, abuse, hate speech, and extremism was partially blocked by Elon Musk’s social media platform X on Wednesday. X’s case is among several legal challenges over the extent of states’ authority to regulate social media companies. Social network company Meta Platforms announced on Tuesday that, in response to a request from Brazil’s data protection commission, it will notify the country’s citizens about how it plans to use their personal data to train generative artificial intelligence (AI). X blocks California content moderation law A three-judge panel of the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in San Francisco overturned a lower court judge’s decision declining to pause enforcement of the new California law. The law requires large social media companies to issue public reports describing their content moderation practices and to provide data on the number of objectionable posts and how they were addressed. Musk sued last year to stop the law from taking effect, claiming it violated speech protections under the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment. X’s case is among several legal challenges over the extent of states’ authority to regulate social media companies. Social media moderation laws against First Amendment concerns The U.S. Supreme Court in May directed lower courts to reassess whether social media content moderation laws in Texas and Florida raised First Amendment concerns. In X’s lawsuit, U.S. District Judge William Shubb in Sacramento refused to block the California law in December, finding it was not “unjustified or unduly burdensome within the context of First Amendment law.” The appeals court disagreed, holding that the law’s requirements were “more extensive than necessary” to justify the state’s goal of forcing social media companies to be open about their moderation policies and practices. The panel said the lower court must review whether the content moderation part of the law can be carved out from other provisions. Meta states how it uses Brazilians’ personal data to train AI Meta Platforms announced on Tuesday that, in response to a request from Brazil’s data protection commission, it will notify the country’s citizens about how it plans to use their personal data to train generative artificial intelligence (AI). Meta’s users in Brazil will receive the warnings starting on Tuesday by email and notifications on Facebook and Instagram and will be able to reject the use of their data by the firm to train generative AI, it said in a statement. Brazil’s National Data Protection Authority (ANPD) in July suspended Meta’s new privacy policy over the use of personal data to train AI but overturned this last Friday, saying Meta had agreed to issue the disclosures. Generative AI tools suspended in Brazil In July, Meta also actively suspended the use of generative AI tools in Brazil, which included tools used to create popular AI-made stickers for messaging platform WhatsApp. Brazil is WhatsApp’s second-largest customer base. At the time, Meta said it had decided to suspend the tools while it was in talks with ANPD to address the authority’s doubts over its use of generative AI. Asked by Reuters on Tuesday if it would resume the tools after ANPD lifted the suspension, Meta only reaffirmed that the suspension had been issued while it was in talks with the ANPD. Related Items: