The proprietors of Twitter have been charged with sending letters threatening legal action in an effort to “bully” anti-hate activists into silence.
X Corp allegedly accused the Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) of creating “troubling and baseless claims” in its reports concerning the platform, according to the CCDH.
Elon Musk purchased the site last year on the condition that he would uphold free speech.
The actions of Mr. Musk, according to CCDH CEO Imran Ahmed, were “a brazen attempt to silence honest criticism.”
Just over a week ago, Mr. Musk renamed Twitter as X.
Since Mr. Musk acquired control of the company, Twitter has come under fire for what critics say is a lack of action against hate speech and disinformation, even from former employees. On the other hand, Mr. Musk tweeted in December that hate speech had decreased by a third.
After a nearly eight-month suspension following a string of abusive tweets, including one that appeared to combine a swastika and the Star of David, the platform restored Kanye West’s account on Sunday.
The campaign group’s claims that Twitter “fails to act on 99%” of hostile tweets from accounts with Twitter Blue subscriptions were refuted by X Corp attorney Alex Spiro in a letter to the CCDH.
In an article criticising the organization’s methods, Mr. Spiro claimed that “the article is little more than a series of inflammatory, misleading, and unsupported claims based on a cursory review of random tweets.”
Additionally, he said that money was coming from “X Corp’s commercial rivals, as well as government entities and their affiliates” to assist CCDH.
The letter stated that X Corp was considering legal action and accused the organisation of trying to scare away advertisers. Since Mr. Musk’s $44 billion (£33.6 billion) purchase, the company has lost nearly half of its advertising revenue, he said in July.
The “ridiculous letter’s” accusations, according to CCDH’s attorney Roberta Kaplan, were “an upsetting attempt to intimidate those who have the courage to advocate against incitement, hate speech, and harmful content online.”
Government agencies and social media firms, “both of whom we praise or criticise without fear or favour,” according to CCDH, are not sources of income for the organisation.
Politicians in Britain supported CCDH for its efforts to draw attention to hate speech on social media.
Elon Musk’s devotion to free speech, according to Damian Collins, a British MP on the UK board of CCDH, didn’t appear to apply when his company was questioned.
CCDH “does vitally important work tackling hate online and calling out platforms which fail to counter dis- and misinformation on their sites,” according to Lucy Powell, MP, the shadow culture secretary.
After changing the company’s name, X Corp removed the previous Twitter sign from its San Francisco headquarters and installed a brand-new, brightly illuminated, flashing X in its stead.
The new sign must now be taken down as a result of complaints, according to the corporation.