Lawsuit filed by Elon Musk’s X against nonprofit CCDH thrown out by judge on free speech grounds

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
judgement
Monday
that
the “case
is
about
punishing
the
Defendants
for
their
speech.”

X

sued
the
research
group
in
July,
accusing
it
of
implementing
a “scare
campaign”
to
drive
away
advertisers.
The
company
also
accused

CCDH
of
improperly
accessing
data
from
the
platform
and
selectively
picking
posts
to “falsely
claim”
that
X
is “overwhelmed
with
harmful
content.”

The
suit
followed
studies
published
by
CCDH
in
which
the
British
firm,
which
tracks
hate
speech
and
online
misinformation,
found
an
increase
in
antisemitic
and
anti-Muslim
hate
speech
on
X
after
Musk

took
over
the
company,
formerly
known
as
Twitter,
in
late
2022.

Judge
Charles
Breyer
in
the
Northern
District
of
California
wrote
in
his
ruling
that
while
X
claimed
the
case
was
about
breach
of
contract
and
unlawful
data
scraping,
it
was
clearly
about
speech.

“Sometimes
it
is
unclear
what
is
driving
a
litigation,
and
only
by
reading
between
the
lines
of
a
complaint
can
one
attempt
to
surmise
a
plaintiff’s
true
purpose,”
Breyer
wrote. “Other
times,
a
complaint
is
so
unabashedly
and
vociferously
about
one
thing
that
there
can
be
no
mistaking
that
purpose.
This
case
represents
the
latter
circumstance.
This
case
is
about
punishing
the
Defendants
for
their
speech.”

In
one
analysis,
the
CCDH
researchers
evaluated
100
different
premium
Twitter
Blue
accounts
and
found
the
platform
failed
to
act
on
99%
of
hate
speech
posted
by
those
users.
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,
Judge
Breyer
cited
California’s
anti-SLAPP
statute,
which
protects “speech
on
matters
of
public
concern.”
SLAPP
stands
for “strategic
lawsuits
against
public
participation,”
and
such
suits
are
commonly
used
by
corporations
seeking
to
thwart
critics.

“X
Corp.
has
brought
this
case
in
order
to
punish
CCDH
for
CCDH
publications
that
criticized
X
Corp.—and
perhaps
in
order
to
dissuade
others
who
might
wish
to
engage
in
such
criticism,”
Breyer
wrote.

He
added
that
the
tens
of
millions
of
dollars
in
damages
X
had
demanded
would
be “presumably
enough
to
torpedo
the
operations
of
a
small
nonprofit.”

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,
attorney
for
the
CCDH,
recently
secured
a
victory
in
a
defamation
case
brought
against
former
President
Donald
Trump
on
behalf
of
author
E.
Jean
Carroll.
A
jury
found
Trump
liable
for
sexually
abusing
Carroll
in
1996.

X
said
in
a
post
from
its
XNews
account
that
it “disagrees
with
the
court’s
decision
and
plans
to
appeal.”
Attorneys
for
X
didn’t
respond
to
a
request
for
comment.

Musk
is
pursuing
similar
cases
against
other
groups.

In
one
instance,
X
has
sued
an
Israeli
web
data
collection
company
called
Bright
Data
over
its
allegedly
unauthorized
scraping
of
data
from
its
social
media
platform.
And

in
Texas,
X
sued
Media
Matters
for
America
and
one
of
its
staff
members
over
an
investigative
report
the
watchdog
published
titled, “As
Musk
endorses
antisemitic
conspiracy
theory,
X
has
been
placing
ads
for
Apple,
Bravo,
IBM,
Oracle,
and
Xfinity
next
to
pro-Nazi
content.”