Elon Musk Sues Anti-Hate Nonprofit Over Ad Revenue Decline
The glaring X sign on top of the former HQ in San Francisco is gone for now, but Elon Musk is determined to light up an anti-hate group for allegedly cramping his revenue stream style.
In a breach of contract and more lawsuit filed today in federal court, the billionaire’s X Corp. has gone after the Center for Countering Digital Hate for supposedly data scraping the social media platform formally known as Twitter in “a scare campaign to drive away advertisers.”
“In direct response to CCDH’s efforts, some companies have paused their advertising spend on X, the four claim complaint says (read it here). “CCDH’s unlawful conduct as alleged herein has directly and proximately damaged X Corp. in an amount to be proven at trial, but in any event at least tens of millions of dollars that X Corp. estimates it has lost in advertising revenues and other costs incurred,” it continues. “More fundamentally still, CCDH’s scare campaign to global advertisers and its on-going pressure on brands is an attempt to stifle freedom of speech on the X platform.”
Amidst the usual Twitter/X lunges this way and that in recent months, the legal action comes just over a week after self-declared free speech sherpa Musk had his lawyers blast off a letter to the CCDH basically telling them to check themselves or the lawsuit hammer would come down. And, now it has – kinda.
Of course it should be noted that since Musk bought Twitter for $44 billion in 2022, a lot of the guardrails on the platform have disappeared, some for good, some for just a spell. In that uncertainty (to put it mildly), and as rivals to the platform proliferated, ad revenues for Twitter (which rebranded as X last month), have cratered more than 50% since late last year. In no small part to stem the bleeding, former NBCU ad sales boss Linda Yaccarino joined as CEO in June.
In that context and before Yaccarino took over, a June report from the CCDH said that “new research shows that Twitter fails to act on 99% of hate posted by Twitter Blue subscribers, suggesting that the platform is allowing them to break its rules with impunity and is even algorithmically boosting their toxic tweets.”
In a post of their own on X today, the CCDH took aim at Musk over the jury trial-seeking lawsuit: “Elon Musk is targeting CCDH because we’re a leading voice exposing how hate speech & lies skyrocketed on Twitter under his ownership. By threatening us, Elon Musk is trying to hide the truth about his own failures.”
Looking for unspecified damages and an injunction from the court against the allegedly “underhanded” CCDH, X Corp.’s White & Case LLP team tried to flip the script and damn the nonprofit for trying to quell critical voices:
It has a history of using similar tactics not for the goal of combating hate, but rather to censor a wide range of viewpoints on social media with which it disagrees. CCDH’s efforts often rely on obtaining and intentionally mischaracterizing data in “research” reports it prepares to make it appear as if a few specific users (often media organizations and high profile individuals) are overwhelming social media platforms with content that CCDH deems harmful. CCDH uses those reports to demand that platform providers kick the targeted users off of their platforms, thus silencing their viewpoints on broadly debated topics such as COVID-19 vaccines, reproductive healthcare, and climate change. In this manner, CCDH seeks to prevent public dialogue and the public’s access to free expression in favor of an ideological echo chamber that conforms to CCDH’s favored viewpoints.
CCDH’s methodologies in preparing its “research” reports have been widely criticized as “flawed” for using inappropriately small sample sizes and quoting data out of context, and CCDH has been accused of using those methodologies to create “faulty narratives” about the type and volume of harmful content on platforms. CCDH nonetheless continues to prepare its incorrect reports and articles, including those against X Corp., in efforts to silence users it disagrees with on topics of public debate, and now to cause serious financial harm to X Corp.
Whether or not, this suit goes much further or Musk loses interest and moves on, remains to be seen. What is known, at least based on past repercussions against journalists and others who disagreed or criticized him, is that Tesla chief Musk has a limit to free speech when it comes to himself and his businesses.
Source: Deadline
