A Kenyan, Felix Kibet, has filed a petition seeking a court order to compel Attorney-General Dorcas Oduor to ensure social media platforms like X (formerly Twitter) comply with the Kenyan Constitution.

Kibet claims that X’s content regulation failures have led to widespread violations of citizens' rights, including hate speech, pornography, and violence.

“The petitioner avers that, the 1st respondent (X) in allowing, entertaining, encouraging, acquiescing in and or promoting in its social media platform “X” (formerly Twitter), the publication and access in Kenya of content that disrespects the rights and reputation of others is in contravention of Articles 10 and 19 (3) of the Constitution,” the petition states.

High Court judge Bahati Mwamuye has certified the case as urgent, with the hearing set for January 17.

Kibet seeks an order halting the publication of harmful content, including pornography and hate speech, and stopping the use of pseudonymous accounts.

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He also wants unregulated live-streamed conversations on X’s "Spaces" feature to be controlled.

“Further through it's versatile feature called “Spaces” permits users to have ungoverned live-streamed audio conversations on any topic around the sun, at any time using any character of language including vulgarity and obscenity,” Kibet says.

Meanwhile, X is facing legal challenges in the U.S., where the SEC has filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk for failing to disclose his ownership of Twitter shares in a timely manner.

Musk is accused of saving at least $150 million by delaying the disclosure, which caused the stock price to jump after the announcement.

“As alleged, because Musk failed to timely file a beneficial ownership report with the SEC, he was able to make these purchases of Twitter common stock at artificially low prices,” the SEC stated.

Musk denied the charges, calling the SEC a “Totally broken organization,” while his lawyer labelled the lawsuit a “sham.” These legal battles underline growing scrutiny of X’s practices both in Kenya and globally.

These two legal battles — one in Kenya and the other in the United States — highlight the increasing scrutiny of X's practices and their potential consequences on the platform's operations.

While Kibet's case could set important precedents for social media governance in Kenya, Musk's ongoing legal challenges could influence the platform's future trajectory worldwide.