An anti-hate speech group is fighting back after Twitter threatened legal action over a study that found the company failed to remove hateful tweets from paid accounts.The legal threat from Twitter accused the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a nonprofit organization, of publishing “inflammatory, outrageous, and false or misleading assertions” about the social media platform ― specifically, in the form of the group’s research into Twitter’s failure to take down hate speech since Elon Musk took over.
In June, CCDH researchers used Twitter’s reporting mechanism to flag 100 tweets from paid “Twitter Blue” subscribers that CCDH saw as violating Twitter’s policies, including “racist, homophobic, neo-Nazi, antisemitic or conspiracy content.” Four days later, according to the group, Twitter had only taken down one post out of 100, and all of the offending accounts remained active.
Twitter claimed in its letter that it had “reason to believe” CCDH’s work had been funded by Twitter’s competitors and that it appeared “calculated to harm Twitter generally, and its digital advertising business specifically.” The company’s attorney, Alex Spiro, provided no evidence for the claims.
CCDH responded quickly, saying Musk's claim was “ridiculous” and said its threat of legal action was “bogus and you know it.” The letter noted that CCDH has published work critical of Twitter’s competitors as well, and that “simply put, there is no bona fide legal grievance here,” but rather “a transparent attempt to silence honest criticism.”
CCDH research on Twitter, Google, TikTok, Substack and other websites is widely trusted by media outlets such as HuffPost, The New York Times, The Washington Post, The Wall Street Journal and The Guardian. The group’s work on Twitter has made waves since Musk’s takeover of the social media site and his mass layoffs of content moderation staff, along with his decision to allow previously-banned accounts back on the site.
Imran Ahmed, the CEO of CCDH, said in a statement that Musk was targeting the organization because “we reveal the truth about the spread of hate and disinformation on Twitter under his ownership, and it’s impacting his bottom line. Elon Musk’s actions represent a brazen attempt to silence honest criticism and independent research, in the desperate hope that he can stem the tide of negative stories and rebuild his relationship with advertisers. . . Advertisers are fleeing his platform for one clear reason: Elon Musk has supported the proliferation of hate and racism on it, and he doesn’t care to stop it.”
Twitter’s advertising has tanked since Musk purchased the site in October.
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