Elon Musk has turned social media into a battlefield. The sides? Free Speech v. X. The weapons? The internet and academic research.
In July of this year, a case of interest was filed in the Northern District of California in the US District Court, accusing the Center for Countering Digital Hate of violating their terms of service by not appropriately collecting data for analysis. It also suggests that the organization is using this information for nefarious purposes and is backed by competitors of X. The nonprofit frequently publishes reports regarding hate speech, extremism, and harmful behavior - including multiple regarding how LGBTQ+ hate speech and climate misinformation have greatly increased after Musk’s acquisition. On the other hand, X alleges the center to have scraped large amounts of data from the site without their permission and have improperly accessed internal Twitter data using log-on credentials it obtained from an employee at a separate company. According to the company, they have lost tens of millions of dollars in advertisement revenue as a result. Imran Ahmed, the center’s founder and CEO, defended his work and accused Musk of using his position of power to silence adversaries, claiming, “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.”
While Musk had initially promised that all legal speech would be allowed on his platform, he has shown sensitivity regarding any negative comments aimed at him or his companies. In fact, last year, he suspended the accounts of several journalists who were discussing his takeover of Twitter.
Interestingly enough, this trend has continued through multiple groups. In fact, Musk threatened to sue the Anti-Defamation League which works to eliminate antisemitism and bigotry as they were “trying to kill [his] platform.” Through a series of tweets, the CEO of X addressed how advertising sales for the business were down 60% and expressed wanting to sue the Anti-Defamation League for defamation, noting the irony present in the situation. The ADL is also a proponent of the content moderation bill which X is now suing California over.
While many people have turned this into a debacle over the free speech aspects of the case, few consider the true economic effects. After all, it is quite likely that Musk is simply trying to protect his company’s interests. However, disagreement can be resolved in many manners, especially when it comes to academic papers. His use of the law, rather than the mind, does leave a question to be answered about social media: does Musk truly desire free speech on X?
Sources:
https://apnews.com/article/x-twitter-elon-musk-lawsuit-decline-millions-advertisers-hate-speech-cchd-1ca41944fdf58529d1fa280725a510da
https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2023/sep/05/elon-musk-sue-adl-x-twitter
https://www.cnbc.com/2023/09/13/elon-musk-x-is-suing-california-over-content-moderation-bill.html
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