• The Centre for Countering Digital Hate has been embroiled in a lawsuit with X after it published research critical of the platform.
• A judge has now dismissed the case in a harsh judgement that suggests that X is trying to curb the free speech of its critics.
• X has said it will appeal the dismissal.

The Centre for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) has been embroiled in a legal tussle with Elon Musk’s X Corp which operates X, the platform formerly known as Twitter. The legal brouhaha kicked off last year when the CCDH published several reports about the ailing social media platform.

The social media platform alleged in its lawsuit that the non-profit organisation gained improper access to its data. It then alleged that CCDH used that data to make the claim that X was filled to the brim with harmful content. Musk’s platform claimed that CCDH’s publications had resulted in lost revenue.

The CCDH responded to this lawsuit by employing California’s anti-strategic lawsuits against public participation (anti-SLAPP) laws. Essentially, the CCDH said that this lawsuit was designed to not only silence it but potentially dissuade others from being critical of X.

“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. Although X Corp. accuses CCDH of trying ‘to censor viewpoints that CCDH disagrees with,’ it is X Corp. that demands ‘at least tens of millions of dollars’ in damages—presumably enough to torpedo the operations of a small nonprofit—because of the views expressed in the nonprofit’s publications. If CCDH’s publications were defamatory, that would be one thing, but X Corp. has carefully avoided saying that they are,” Judge Charles Breyer wrote.

“Given these circumstances, the Court is concerned that X Corp.’s desire to amend its breach of contract claim has a dilatory motive—forcing CCDH to spend more time and money defending itself before it can hope to get out from under this potentially ruinous litigation,” Breyer added.

In his ruling, which is rather exhaustive but worth a read – especially for Musk fans – the Judge highlights how X tried to argue that accessing X’s data cost it “at least tens of millions of dollars” but that argument didn’t fly. This is because CCDH accessed the data it used via Brandwatch and other third parties. Essentially then, CCDH didn’t access X’s internal data and thus caused no “loss” to X.

“It is also just not true that the complaint is only about data collection… It is impossible to read the complaint and not conclude that X Corp. is far more concerned about CCDH’s speech than it is its data collection methods,” wrote Breyer.

All tolled, the judge ruled that CCDH met the criteria needed to meet the first step of anti-SLAPP analysis. X meanwhile, failed to show that it would prevail in the claims it made. So, the lawsuit was dismissed.

A representative for X posted that the firm would appeal the decision although it’s not clear what tack it will take in that regard.

The CCDH has welcomed the dismissal of the case.

“The courts today have affirmed our fundamental right to research, to speak, to advocate, and to hold accountable social media companies for decisions they make behind closed doors that affect our kids, our democracy, and our fundamental human rights and civil liberties. We hope this landmark ruling will embolden public-interest researchers everywhere to continue, and even intensify, their vital work of holding social media companies accountable for the hate and disinformation they host and the harm they cause,” Imran Ahmed, chief executive officer and founder of the CCDH wrote in a statement.

For Mr Free Speech to be slammed for potentially trying to curb free speech ought to be rather damning for Musk but we know better. No sooner had the ruling been published than Musk’s sycophants were springing to his defense. Despite the judge clearly outlining how X has tried to curb CCDH’s right to criticise X, fans of the billionaire allege that no, it’s actually the CCDH which is trying to curb free speech by pointing out that neo-Nazis, anti-semites and other terrible people are allowed to flourish on the platform.

This seems to be far from over and we suspect this won’t be the last time X and the CCDH lock horns especially as Musk dips even further into conspiracy theories.