X Corp., the parent company of X, formerly known as Twitter, is suing the Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) over claims that the group "embarked on a scare campaign." The company claims that it lost tens of millions of dollars worth of potential advertising revenue after CCDH alleged that Elon Musk's takeover of the social media platform led to a rise in hate speech and disinformation.
CCDH is a British-American non-profit that claims to want to stop Big Tech from providing platforms that promote hate and misinformation. In X Corp's lawsuit, filed in the United States District Court for the Northern District of California, the company accused CCDH of "masquerading" as a research and advocacy organization and unlawfully accessing and scraping data from Twitter for its studies.
X Corp further accused CCDH of "cherry-picking" from hundreds of millions of posts made on the platform and using it to falsely claim that it had "statistical support" showing that so-called "harmful content" like hate speech and disinformation has exploded on the platform. (Related: "Hate speech" censorship group partnered with White House funded by these 9 "dark money" sources.)
"It did so out of context in public reports and articles it prepared to make it appear as if X is overwhelmed by harmful content, and then used that contrived narrative to call for companies to stop advertising on X," reads X Corp's filing.
X Corp lost tens of millions of dollars due to CCDH
Twitter's dispute with CCDH was first revealed in a legal letter sent by X Corp last month and released on Monday, July 31. In the letter, Twitter threatened legal action against CCDH over "inflammatory, outrageous and misleading assertions about Twitter and its operations."
Twitter further alleged that CCDH's accusations about the rise in hate and disinformation on the platform constituted a "scare campaign" that helped drive advertisers – Twitter's main source of income – away from the platform. X Corp's filing even noted that "some companies" have paused their advertising spending on the platform.
X Corp estimates that it has lost at least tens of millions of dollars in potential advertising revenue and other earnings due to CCDH's "scare campaign."
The situation got so bad that this drop in advertising revenue is what initially prompted Musk's decision to hire Linda Yaccarino, the former advertising head of NBCUniversal, as his new chief executive, in the hopes of wooing back advertisers so that the platform's revenue stops collapsing.
In its response, CCDH CEO Imran Ahmed claimed that all it has done is provide research proving how hate-filled the platform has become since Musk's takeover.
"Musk is trying to 'shoot the messenger' who highlights the toxic content on his platform rather than deal with the toxic environment he has created," said Ahmed. "The CCDH's independent research will not stop – Musk will not bully us into silence."
CCDH further claimed that it does not accept any funding from tech companies, governments or anybody affiliated with either.
Learn more about Big Tech companies like Twitter at BigTech.news.
Watch this clip from Fox News discussing how Elon Musk's attempt to rebrand Twitter is being received terribly.
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