Twitter/X Sues Hate-Speech Research Group Over Claims That Hateful, Racist Content Has Proliferated Under Elon Musk’s Ownership
variety.com
UPDATED: X, the Elon Musk-owned social service formerly known as Twitter, said it filed a legal claim against the Center for Countering Digital Hate. “Despite our continued progress, the Cent…

Twitter filed a lawsuit against the Center for Countering Digital Hate. “Despite our continued progress, the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) and its backers have been actively working to assert false and misleading claims encouraging advertisers to pause investment on the platform. X is a free public service funded largely by advertisers. Through the CCDH’s scare campaign and its ongoing pressure on brands to prevent the public’s access to free expression, the CCDH is actively working to prevent public dialogue,” the company said in a blog post Monday.

“Musk and his legal team, led by attorney Alex Spiro at Quinn Emanuel, have engaged in an aggressive campaign to intimidate, bully, and silence CCDH,” the organization said in a statement released Monday. “While Elon Musk proclaims to be a ‘free speech absolutist,’ his actions against CCDH show the lengths he will go to silence those who seek to hold him to account.”

  • aranym@lemmy.nameOPEnglish
    781·
    1 year ago

    The CCDH do not have the resources to fight Twitter alone. This is clearly an attempt to scare them into silence with legal fees.

    Those who wish may donate here.

  • ∟⊔⊤∦∣≶@lemmy.nzEnglish
    551·
    1 year ago

    It blows my mind how CEO’s can make such obviously shortsighted and stupid decisions.

    Elon is elonning Twitter’s reputation faster and faster every day.

    • Bezerker03@lemmy.bezzie.worldEnglish
      615·
      1 year ago

      I mean the alternative possibility is that people dislike Elon and are trying to inflate small things into big ones.

      Not that I don’t actually suspect hate speech hasn’t increased on his platform since he fired most of the staff anyway, but a company does have the right to defend itself legally against accusations and decide it in court.

      It’s like if you made a company and I had a claim that you were eating babies during lunch. Your defense against me would be a lawsuit in court.

      • themeatbridge@lemmy.worldEnglish
        15·
        1 year ago

        Ok, but if you fire the team responsible for making sure no babies are consumed, and your company cafeteria menu suddenly has a section called All Baby All Day, the only people who will defend you are probably also eating babies at home.

      • Necronomicommunist@lemmy.worldEnglish
        8·
        1 year ago

        Yeah, he has the right, sure. Nobody says he doesn’t, nobody says he shouldn’t. But right now it’s in the media. It’s stupid. Now there’s more attention drawn to this, and if they lose (though Elon’s musk will likely try to bleed them dry rather than try to straight up win) it’s now not just a claim, it’s a claim backed up by law. He has very little to gain with this stunt.

      • TwilightVulpine@lemmy.worldEnglish
        6·
        1 year ago

        The situation of one of the largest social media platforms in the world, and the proliferation of hate speech in it, are not small things. That place has had real political impact.

      • ExcessivelySalty@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Just because you have a right to do something, doesn’t mean it’s the right thing to do. Something that Elon clearly doesn’t understand.

  • Justice@lemmygrad.mlEnglish
    312·
    1 year ago

    “Your honor, my defense rests on one simple principle: you can’t defame the dead. Elon Musk killed Twitter last week. That is all.”

    But on a serious note, Elon is a fucking baby however these cases typically get tossed out basically instantly for being baseless. His intent is likely to make future researchers or just non-anonymous people everywhere never speak the MEAN truth about his stupidity or suffer bullshit law suits. He has the infinite money, it’s not like he cares if a court orders he pay all the fees for wasting time. Normal people can’t accept that risk though or the time off work to deal with it. Basically, he should face imprisonment for a long fucking time to deter HIM from this bullshit. Or, I dunno, seize all his ill gotten capital, I dunno.

    • Cabrio@lemmy.worldEnglish
      5·
      1 year ago

      It’s a game of stupid chicken, because the moment someone actually goes to court instead of settling he’s just given them a platform to prove how much of a dipshit he is.

  • Z4rK@lemmy.worldEnglish
    161·
    1 year ago

    To moderators: if the mega thread style doesn’t work, could we consider splitting out Musk-news to some other community? The topics comes rapidly and gain a lot of interest, but it’s such a narrow perspective on technology and just drowns other news.

    • Toribor@corndog.socialEnglish
      3·
      1 year ago

      At least on Reddit I used RES filters to block all posts with certain people in the subjects. Cuts down on a lot of low-effort gossip from people hate-posting news.

      • Scew@lemmy.worldEnglish
        21·
        1 year ago

        low-effort gossip from people hate-posting news

        Thank you for the terms. Couldn’t find them anywhere. Made it hard to fit my comments in with communities not realizing this was the meta.

      • TwilightVulpine@lemmy.worldEnglish
        11·
        1 year ago

        Why would people who want to talk about Twitter/X even go to a community created by people who want to see less of it? We consider this Technology news.

        • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.orgEnglish
          0·
          1 year ago

          The name is a way of acknowledging that people are tired of hearing about him. It’s (I think; I didn’t create it) saying, for those who want to read about this asshat but without spamming other channels, not no one cares about this.

          • TwilightVulpine@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            1 year ago

            I am also tired of him but what can I do if he keeps doing newsworthy bulshit? I’m not going to go to a community just about him, because I’m not that personally invested in him, but I also don’t think talking about current relevant events involving him is “spam”, particularly when it comes to Twitter.

  • HurlingDurling@lemm.eeEnglish
    9·
    1 year ago

    “How dare you give me factual information about me to my face! I will sue you!” - eturd musk

    • Comment105@lemm.eeEnglish
      1·
      1 year ago

      Yeah, seriously. Anyone who pays attention know that the new Twitter with the new X might as well have been a Swastika or the cross of a Confederate flag, so what the research group is claiming to have data on isn’t really news at all.

      But him making a lawsuit out of it makes it much more likely that this will be reported and mentioned across most of the western world, your parents might even hear about it.

      • punseye@lemmy.worldEnglish
        1·
        1 year ago

        Just a correction, Hitler and Nazi party never used Swastika, the original name of the symbol was “Hakenkreuz” in German.

        There is no mention of the word “Swastika” in any of the writings and speeches of the Nazi party.

        Hakenkreuz was wrongly translated to Swastika when the translation was carried out in English from German.

        The correct translation of Hakenkreuz in English would be “Hooked Cross”.

        Swastika is a similar looking sacred Hindu and Buddhist symbol, maybe because of it’s similarity this error occurred and it went unchallenged in international forums as Hindus and Buddhists didn’t even know how their sacred symbol was misappropriated and misrepresented because of mistranslation.