Tesla CEO Elon Musk
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A federal judge in California dismissed a lawsuit filed by Elon Musk's X against the nonprofit Center for Countering Digital Hate, writing in a ruling Monday that “the issue is about punishing defendants for their speech.”
X filed a lawsuit against the research group in July, accusing it of carrying out a “scare campaign” to drive away advertisers. The company also accused CCDH of improperly accessing data from the platform and selectively selecting posts to “falsely claim” that X is “full of harmful content.”
The lawsuit followed studies published by CCDH in which the British company, which tracks hate speech and misinformation online, found an increase in anti-Semitic and anti-Muslim hate speech on X after Musk acquired the company, formerly known as Twitter, in late 2022.
Justice Charles Breyer in the Northern District of California wrote in his ruling that while X claimed the case was about breach of contract and illegal data collection, it was clearly about speech.
“Sometimes it is not clear what prompts a lawsuit, and only by reading between the lines of the complaint can one attempt to guess the plaintiff's true purpose,” Breyer wrote. “Other times, the complaint is so shamelessly and loudly about one thing that there can be no error on that purpose. This case represents the latter circumstance. This case is about punishing the defendants for their speech.”
In one analysis, CCDH researchers evaluated 100 different distinct accounts on Twitter Blue and found that the platform failed to address 99% of the hate speech posted by these users. The CCDH also found that Twitter failed to act on 89% of anti-Jewish hate speech and 97% of anti-Muslim hate speech on the platform.
In his order, Justice Breyer cited California's anti-SLAPP law, which protects “expression on matters of public concern.” SLAPP stands for Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation, and such lawsuits are commonly used by companies seeking to thwart critics.
“X Corp brought this case in order to punish CCDH for CCDH posts that criticized X Corp. — and perhaps to dissuade others who might want to engage in such criticism,” Breyer wrote.
He added that the tens of millions of dollars in damages sought by
The CCDH told CNBC in a statement Monday that Breyer's ruling “sent a strong message about seeking to censor those who criticize social media companies, which we are confident will resonate throughout Silicon Valley and beyond.”
Roberta Kaplan, an attorney for the Human Rights Advisory Council, recently obtained a victory in a defamation case against former President Donald Trump on behalf of author E.B. Jean Carroll. A jury found Trump liable for sexually assaulting Carroll in 1996.
X said in a post on her XNews account that she “disagrees with the court's decision and plans to appeal.” X's attorneys did not respond to a request for comment.
Musk is pursuing similar cases against other groups.
In one case, Company X sued an Israeli web data collection company called Bright Data for unauthorized deletion of data from its social media platform. In Texas, X sued Media Matters for America and one of its employees over an investigative report published by the watchdog titled: “While Musk endorses anti-Semitic conspiracy theory, For pro-Nazi content.”
