X. Corp, Twitter’s parent company, has sued the Center for Countering Digital Hate for “initiating a scare campaign to drive advertisers off the platform.”
Lawyers for Elon Musk’s firm alleged that the nonprofit, which counters online hate speech, obtained data from the platform “unlawfully” and then used it “out of context … to make it look like X is being overpowered” by harmful content’.
The CCDH then used that fabricated story to call on companies to stop advertising on X,” the lawsuit alleges. Twitter is currently being rebranded as X as part of a radical shake-up at the company.
X filed the lawsuit Monday night, hours after the CCDH revealed it had received a legal letter from the company threatening legal action a report that claimed the platform is “unresponsive to 99 percent of Twitter Blue accounts that tweet hate.”
Attorneys for X accused it of a series of “disturbing and baseless claims” designed to “damage Twitter’s business.” The CCDH accused X of “ridiculous” and “frivolous claims” designed to “intimidate thoughtful critics.”
Imran Ahmed, CEO of Center for Countering Digital Hate, said that “Elon Musk’s actions are a brutal attempt to silence honest criticism and independent research”
Lawyers from the company X Corp. of Elon Musk allege that the CCDH, which counters hate speech online, obtained data from the platform ‘illegitimately’ and then used it ‘taken out of context’ to make it appear that X is overwhelmed by harmful content’
Imran Ahmed, CEO of Center for Countering Digital Hate, said: “Elon Musk’s actions represent a brutal attempt to silence honest criticism and independent research.”
X’s lawsuit concerns breach of contract, violation of the law on computer fraud and misuse and international interference in contractual relations.
The lawsuit alleges that the CCDH “scraped data from X’s platform in violation of the express terms of its (user) agreement” and also improperly used a third-party analytics platform to conduct research.
CCDH’s underhanded behavior is nothing new. It has a history of using similar tactics not to fight hate, but rather to censor a wide range of social media views that it disagrees with,” it said.
X also claimed that the CCDH is “funded and supported by unknown organizations, individuals and possibly even foreign governments associated with old media companies.” The CCDH denies that it receives funding from governments or technology companies.
In its pre-trial letter to CCDH, X Corp cited a June CCDH report suggesting Twitter allows Twitter Blue subscribers to “break the rules with impunity.”
The CCDH said it had reported 100 “hateful” tweets in its investigation – including examples of racism, homophobia and anti-Semitism – but that 99 of those were still live four days later.
X Corp. attorney Alex Spiro wrote, “The article cites no sources other than several similarly worn posts on CCDH’s own website, and does not identify the qualifications of the researchers who worked on the article.”
In other words, the article is little more than a series of inflammatory, misleading and unsubstantiated claims based on a cursory review of random tweets.
The CCDH responded on Monday with a response from its attorneys saying that the letter from X Corp. was “ridiculous” and that the “frivolous claims” were an attempt to “intimidate thoughtful critics.”
We warn against further attempts by X Corp. to threaten or intimidate our customers,” the letter said. Hours later, the charges were filed.
The legal battle comes as Musk attempts to rebrand Twitter, which he bought for $44 billion in October, while dealing with a roughly 50 percent drop in ad revenue.
The first letter from X Corp. to the CCDH quoted one Time article stating that advertisers had left the platform following Musk’s acquisition and recent “content policy changes” led to a spike in “hateful, violent and inaccurate messages.”
The lawsuit came after X sent a letter to the CCDH on July 20, 2023 alleging that the nonprofit was “supported by funding from X Corp.’s commercial competitors, as well as government agencies and their affiliates.”
The war of words comes as Musk tries to rebrand Twitter, which he bought for $44 billion in October, while dealing with a drop in ad revenue of about 50 percent
a New York Times May’s article also said advertising was down 59 percent and Twitter executives feared advertisers were “shocked” by changes on the platform.
The study the CCDH discovered 100 tweets from subscribers to Twitter Blue’s service that “clearly violate the platform’s anti-hate behavior policy.”
Tweets highlighted in the report included racism, anti-Semitism, praise for Adolf Hitler and the suggestion that LGBT campaigners should be shot.
The investigation claimed that four days after it reported the tweets, only one had been deleted and all accounts had remained active.
X claimed the study was a “cursive review of random tweets,” provided “no methodology” and “no explanation why the 100 selected tweets are an appropriate sample of the nearly 500 million tweets sent per day to generalize about the platform’s content moderation practices.”
The letter further claimed that the CCDH ‘supported by funding from X Corp.’s commercial competitors, as well as government agencies and their affiliates.
The CCDH said it “does not accept any funding from technology companies, governments or their affiliates.”
The reply said it is “fully prepared to defend itself” if X Corp. take legal action.