Former Twitter offended by criticism

Elon Musk X Corp. (formerly Twitter) sued the Center for Combating Digital Hate (CCDH), accusing the NGO of making false claims that “the social network is brimming with harmful content.” According to Bloombergthe lawsuit was filed in federal court in San Francisco.

CCDH, a British non-profit organization with offices in London and Washington, is engaged in research into the spread of disinformation and hate publications on the Internet, and calls on large technology corporations not to provide services to those individuals and entities that distribute such content through social networks. CCDH has regularly scrutinized the content on the Twitter platform since it was acquired by Elon Musk. NPOs estimate that the amount of content that promotes hate has grown over this time.

According to one CCDH study, Twitter takes no action on 99% of the 100 verified accounts (with a blue checkmark) that “spread hate.”

Elon Musk’s lawyers sent a letter to the CCDH and its head, Imran Ahmed, accusing the NPO of publishing material containing “provocative, offensive, and false or misleading statements about Twitter.” To this, the CCDH responded that such a letter is an attempt “to intimidate those who have the courage to speak out against incitement, hate speech and harmful online content.”

In a lawsuit filed after the exchange, X Corp. alleges that CCDH is illegally “poking around” on the platform’s servers, fishing for controversial posts “as part of a scare campaign aimed at discouraging advertisers.”

Since the purchase of Twitter by Elon Musk, ad revenues on the platform have fallen by 50%.

In its lawsuit, X Corp. seeks monetary compensation (its amount is not specified) and an injunction for CCDH to access the data of the platform.

According to Financial TimesCCDH declined to comment on the lawsuit filed against it, but noted that it does not receive funding from technology companies.

Alena Miklashevskaya