Elon Musk's X lawsuit against hate-speech watchdog group is tossed

A national judge connected Monday dismissed a suit by Elon Musk's X Corp. against nan non-profit Center for Countering Digital Hate, ruling that nan lawsuit was astir "punishing" nan investigation group for its speech.

The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) has documented nan summation successful dislike reside connected nan tract since it was acquired by nan Tesla proprietor successful 2022. X, formerly known arsenic Twitter, sued nan nonprofit past year, claiming nan center's researchers violated nan site's position of work by improperly compiling nationalist tweets. 

X based on that nan CCDH's reports connected nan emergence of dislike reside connected nan work had costs it millions of dollars erstwhile advertisers fled. On Monday, U.S. District Court Judge Charles Breyer dismissed nan suit, penning successful his bid that it was "unabashedly and vociferously astir 1 thing" — punishing nan nonprofit for its speech.

In a connection posted to X, nan societal media level said it "disagrees pinch nan court's determination and plans to appeal."

It's not nan only clip Musk's X has sued aft a group flagged issues pinch dislike reside connected nan societal media platform. 

Last November, respective large advertisers including IBM, NBCUniversal and its genitor institution Comcast, said that they stopped advertizing connected X aft a study from nan wide defense group Media Matters said their ads were appearing alongside worldly praising Nazis. The study proved to beryllium yet different setback arsenic X sought to triumph backmost large brands and their advertisement dollars, X's main root of revenue. 

In November, X sued Media Matters, alleging that nan group was trying to "drive advertisers from nan level and destruct X Corp." 

Later that month, Musk went connected an expletive-ridden rant successful consequence to advertisers that halted spending connected X successful consequence to antisemitic and different hateful material, saying they are are engaging successful "blackmail" and, utilizing a profanity, fundamentally told them to spell away.

Seeking millions from CCDH

In suing nan CCDH, X had sought millions of dollars successful damages from group, arguing that nan nonprofit's reports led to nan exodus of advertisers and nan nonaccomplishment of advertisement revenue.

But nan judge agreed pinch CCDH's statement saying X cannot activity damages for nan independent acts of 3rd parties based connected CCDH's reports, aliases its "speech."

X had besides alleged that nan CCDH had "scraped" its tract for data, which is against its position of service. But nan judge recovered that X grounded to "allege losses based connected technological harms" — that is, nan institution didn't show really nan scraping led to financial losses for X.

The halfway is simply a nonprofit pinch offices successful nan U.S. and United Kingdom. It regularly publishes reports connected dislike speech, extremism aliases harmful behaviour connected societal media platforms for illustration X, TikTok aliases Facebook. The statement has published respective reports captious of Musk's leadership, detailing a emergence successful anti-LGBTQ dislike reside arsenic good arsenic ambiance misinformation since his purchase.

"Hypocritical run of harassment"

Imran Ahmed, nan center's laminitis and CEO, said nan suit amounted to a "hypocritical run of harassment" by a billionaire who talks astir protecting free reside but who past uses his wealthiness to effort to soundlessness his critics. He said nan suit shows nan request for a national rule requiring tech companies to merchandise much accusation astir their operations, truthful that nan nationalist tin understand really these powerful platforms are shaping society.

"We dream this landmark ruling will embolden public-interest researchers everyplace to continue, and moreover intensify, their captious activity of holding societal media companies accountable for nan dislike and disinformation they big and nan harm they cause," said Ahmed.

Roberta Kaplan, nan center's attorney, said nan dismissal of X's suit shows "even nan wealthiest man cannot crook nan norm of rule to his will."

"We are surviving successful an property of bullies, and it's societal media that gives them nan powerfulness that they person today," Kaplan said successful an email to reporters. "It takes awesome courageousness to guidelines up to these bullies; it takes an statement for illustration nan Center for Countering Digital Hate. We are proud and honored to correspond CCDH."

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• Lawsuit
• Elon Musk
• Social Media