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Elon Musk’s crusade against extremism research organization the Center for Countering Digital Hate will take place in court on Thursday.
Elon Musk’s X continued the CCDH last year, accusing it is “actively working to make false and misleading claims about X.” The non-profit organization, established in 2018, conducts research on social media platforms to track hate speech, extremism and misinformation. His reports are regularly taken up by press agencies, TechCrunch included.
After Musk’s takeover of Twitter, the CCDH published reports on the rise of hate speech on X and how to unban accountsincluding neo-Nazi Andrew Anglinwould bring the company millions in advertising revenue.
On Thursday, the CCDH will explain why X’s trial is frivolous and goes against the state anti-SLAPP law, which was created to stop litigation intended to intimidate or silence critics. X will defend the validity of its lawsuit, which also accuses CCDH of illegally harvesting data and violating its terms of service through Brandwatch, a social media monitoring tool. Oral arguments will be held in the United States District Court in San Francisco for the Northern District of California and will be broadcast live online.
Late last year, CCDH filed a motion to strike X’s claims under California’s Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation (SLAPP) Act and asked a judge to dismiss the suit outright. trial. CCDH CEO Imran Ahmed accused Musk, who is worth around $200 billion, of intentionally prolonging the legal process to drive up the organization’s legal bills.
“Despite our continued progress, the Center for Combating Digital Hate (CCDH) and its supporters have actively worked to assert false and misleading claims about X and have actively worked to prevent public dialogue,” X wrote on its own platform Last year.
Musk, who is personally involved in the lawsuit, called the CCHR an “evil propaganda machine” and “bronze-level psychological operations” in his responses on X.
Musk filed a similar complaint against the left-wing media watchdog Media Matters for America last year and threatened another against the Anti-Defamation League for its reports of anti-Semitism on X. Unlike the CCHR lawsuit, X is suing Media Matters for America in Texas, which does not benefit from California’s anti-SLAPP protections.
Musk’s financial resources are basically unlimited, but the CCDH has an ace up its sleeve. The nonprofit’s legal team includes Roberta Kaplan, the famous and successful attorney after his massive victory against former President Trump in E. John Carroll.
The CCDH is not just focused on Twitter. The nonprofit regularly publishes research detailing worrying trends across mainstream social platforms, including reports on eating disorder content on TikTok, climate misinformation on YouTube and threats of violence against women on Instagram.
A legal defeat for the CCDH would likely have an immediate chilling effect on researchers tracking hate speech and disinformation on social media. This body of research has proven key to ensuring transparency across major social networks in recent years, as tech companies downplay the negative societal effects of their platforms and avoid regulations that could curb their advertising businesses.
“This ridiculous lawsuit is a classic example of a wealthy and irresponsible corporation using the courts as a weapon to silence researchers simply for studying the spread of hate speech, misinformation and extremism online,” Ahmed said. “The CCDH is not only fighting this cause for our own survival: we know that we are defending the freedom of all independent researchers, academics and journalists in the face of unprecedented efforts by the powerful to intimidate us.
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