Musk sues anti-hate speech nonprofit for alleged false claims, illegal site scraping

KARAH RUCKER: ELON MUSK’S X CORPORATION IS SUING A NONPROFIT THAT FIGHTS HATE SPEECH AND DISINFORMATION. 

THE SOCIAL MEDIA PLATFORM X, FORMERLY KNOWN AS TWITTER, IS ACCUSING THE CENTER FOR COUNTERING DIGITAL HATE FOR ASSERTING FALSE CLAIMS AND ENCOURAGING ADVERTISERS TO STOP INVESTING IN THE COMPANY. 

IN JULY, CCDH PUBLISHED RESEARCH THAT STATED HATE SPEECH HAD INCREASED TOWARD MINORITY COMMUNITIES ON THE PLATFORM. ONE REPORT SAID TWITTER TOOK NO ACTION AGAINST 99-PERCENT OF 100 TWITTER BLUE ACCOUNTS THE CENTER REPORTED FOR TWEETING HATE. 

X AND ITS CEO LINDA YACCARINO CALLED THE REPORT FALSE. THEY’RE ACCUSING CCDH OF FALSELY DESCRIBING X AS BEING – QUOTE – “OVERWHELMED WITH HARMFUL CONTENT”. X SAYS THE RESEARCH WAS BASED ON OUTDATED METRICS THAT WERE GATHERED SHORTLY AFTER TWITTER’S ACQUISITION. 

IN THE LAWSUIT, FILED JULY 31 IN SAN FRANCISCO FEDERAL COURT, X CORP. CLAIMS

THE CCDH GAINED ACCESS TO ITS DATA WITHOUT AUTHORIZATION, ILLEGALLY SCRAPED DATA FROM ITS PLATFORM AND USED SCARE TACTICS TO DRIVE AWAY ADVERTISERS. 

ADVERTISERS BEGAN FLEEING THE PLATFORM LAST YEAR, AFTER MUSK BOUGHT IT FOR 44-BILLION DOLLARS. MUSK HAS ADMITTED THAT ADVERTISING REVENUE IS DOWN MORE THAN 50-PERCENT SINCE OCTOBER. 

IN A LETTER SENT MONDAY, MUSK THREATENED TO SUE THE NON-PROFIT FOR UNSPECIFIED DAMAGES. IN RESPONSE TO MUSK’S LETTER, LAWYERS FOR THE CCDH ACCUSED X OF INTIMIDATION AND SAID THE ALLEGATIONS WAGED AGAINST THEM HAD NO FACTUAL BASIS.