Elon Musk’s X Takes Hate Speech Watchdog to Court in Lawsuit
(Reuters) – A U.S. judge will consider on Thursday whether to dismiss X Corp’s lawsuit against the nonprofit that has criticized the rise of hate speech on the social media platform formerly known as Twitter since Elon Musk took it over.
X sued the Center for Countering Digital Hate last July, accusing it of trying to “intimidate” advertisers by claiming Musk did little to prevent hate speech, racist messages and other misinformation from spreading on the platform.
According to X, the nonprofit scraped and misrepresented data to create false and misleading reports in hopes of silencing those with whom it disagreed on controversial topics such as COVID-19 vaccines, reproductive health, and climate change.
The Center for Countering Digital Hate objected that Musk, a self-proclaimed absolutist of free speech, was trying to silence.
The center said it was not responsible for how advertisers responded to its non-defamatory reports of publicly available X content and that the lawsuit violated California’s so-called anti-SLAPP law, or strategic lawsuits against public participation.
The organization also disputed X’s claim that commercial competitors and perhaps foreign governments had invested in its efforts.
U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer in San Francisco will hear the dismissal request at a hearing. It was unclear whether he would come to power immediately.
The European Climate Foundation, which promotes curbing climate change, is also accused.
Musk, the world’s second richest man, bought Twitter for $44 billion in October 2022.
He has since faced a lot of criticism for kicking too many people on X who were monitoring misinformation, and for allowing more harmful and offensive posts.
In November 2023, Musk endorsed an anti-Semitic post on X that said members of the Jewish community were inciting hatred against white people, saying the user was speaking the “real truth”.
He has denied being anti-Semitic and has tried to correct his position. In January, he visited the former Nazi death camp Auschwitz in southern Poland.
Advertisers have fled X since Musk bought it and reduced content moderation, leading to a dramatic increase in hate speech on X, civil rights groups have said.
Musk is also the CEO of electric vehicle maker Tesla, which has faced several lawsuits alleging that it tolerates employee harassment.
The case is X Corp v. Center for Countering Digital Hate Inc et al, US District Court, Northern District of California, No. 23-03836.
