A judge dismissed Company X’s lawsuit against the Center to Combat Digital Hate (CCDH), a nonprofit organization that investigates hate speech on a platform owned by Elon Musk. The judge said in the ruling that the lawsuit was an attempt to “punish” the organization for criticizing it.
X sued CCDH last summer, accusing the group platform as part of a “scare campaign” to hurt its advertising business. The group had published research that claimed Xi was to act on reports of hate speech and in some cases amplify that content.
In , federal judge Charles Breyer said, “this case is about punishing CCDH for publishing research that is not misleading.” “It is clear to the court that if X Corp. if indeed it was going to spend money in response to CCDH scraps in 2023, it was because of the damage such scraps did to Platform X, not the damage it did to Platform X. Corp image,” Breyer wrote. “The motivation of X Corp. in filing this case is obvious. X Corp brought this case to punish CCDH for CCDH publications critical of X Corp, and possibly to dissuade others.
X said he had a plan decision.
In , CCDH CEO Imram Ahmed said the ruling “affirms our fundamental right to research, speak out, advocate and hold social media companies accountable for their decisions behind closed doors.” He added that “it’s very clear now that we need federal transparency laws” that would require online platforms to release data to independent researchers.
