New Delhi: Twitter’s parent company X Corp. has sued a nonprofit that conducts social media research, accusing it of intentionally harming Twitter, the New York Times reported.
In a blog post on Monday evening (August 1), X Corp. announced that it had filed a lawsuit against the Center for Countering Digital Hate for “actively working to prevent free expression”. The suit was filed in federal court in the Northern District of California, the New York Times reported.
On July 20, X Corp., in a letter to the nonprofit, accused the organisation of making “a series of troubling and baseless claims that appear calculated to harm Twitter generally, and its digital advertising business specifically,” and threatened to sue the organisation.
The Centre for Countering Digital Hate had published 8 research papers examining hate speech on Twitter in June. One of the papers found that Twitter had taken no action against 99% of the 100 Twitter Blue accounts that the nonprofit had reported for “tweeting hate.” X Corp’s letter called the research “false, misleading or both” and said the organisation had used improper methodology, the New York Times reported.
According to the report, the letter said that the nonprofit was funded by Twitter’s competitors or foreign governments “in support of an ulterior agenda.”
Imran Ahmed, the chief executive of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, told the New York Times, “Elon Musk’s actions represent a brazen attempt to silence honest criticism and independent research,” adding that Musk wanted to “stem the tide of negative stories and rebuild his relationship with advertisers.”
Ahmed said the organisation did “not accept any funding from tech companies, governments, or their affiliates.”
Twitter has been embroiled in controversy since Musk took over the platform in October 2022. According to the New York Times report, Twitter’s advertising business has been struggling under him and ad revenues have taken a major hit.
In May, Musk hired Linda Yaccarino, a former top advertising executive for NBCUniversal, to become Twitter’s chief executive.
