Latest / Elon Musk Podcast / "Musk will not bully us into silence" X Corp., Twitter's Parent Company, Sues Hate Speech Watchdog

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"Musk will not bully us into silence" X Corp., Twitter's Parent Company, Sues Hate Speech Watchdog · Elon Musk Podcast

• 0:00
  In a major escalation of a feud between Xcorp, the parent
• 0:04
  company of the former social media giant Twitter, and the
• 0:06
  Center for Countering Digital Hate, CCDH, Xcorp lodged a
• 0:12
  lawsuit in San Francisco's federal court on Monday.
• 0:16
  The defendant, A nonprofit organization known for
• 0:19
  monitoring hate speech and disinformation, stands accused
• 0:23
  of implementing a quote scare campaign explicitly designed to
• 0:27
  deter advertisers from associating with X Corps
• 0:31
  platform. The significant lawsuit was
• 0:33
  officially filed within the confines of the US District
• 0:36
  Court for the Northern District of California.
• 0:39
  Central to the charges is the benefit that CCDH has knowingly
• 0:43
  orchestrated a calculated campaign to discredit X Corps
• 0:47
  platform, thereby scaring away potential advertisers.
• 0:51
  The defendant allegedly conducted this operation by
• 0:53
  publishing research reports claiming that the social media
• 0:57
  service had glaringly failed to address and eradicate hateful
• 1:01
  post circulating on his platform and the services under the
• 1:04
  ownership of the prominent technology entrepreneur.
• 1:07
  As we all know, Elon Musk in the official court filing, Ex Corp,
• 1:11
  enlisted its legal team to put forth the claim that the CCDH
• 1:15
  had deliberately and systematically engaged in a
• 1:19
  series of unlawful acts. These acts were supposedly
• 1:22
  committed with the intention of gaining unauthorized access to X
• 1:25
  Corpse protected data, information that CCDH would
• 1:29
  allegedly need to cherry pick specific posts from hundreds of
• 1:32
  1,000,000 made each day on X Corpse platform.
• 1:36
  The intention behind this, according to X Corp, was to
• 1:39
  fabricate a deceptive narrative suggesting that the platform is
• 1:43
  overwhelmed with harmful content, a narrative that, if
• 1:46
  believed, could severely damage the company's reputation and its
• 1:50
  market. Standing at the lawsuit levels a
• 1:53
  series of specific accusations against the nonprofit
• 1:56
  organization. These charges include breach of
• 1:59
  contract, violation of federal computer fraud laws, intentional
• 2:03
  interference with contractual relations, and inducing breach
• 2:07
  of contract. Acting on behalf of Xcorp, the
• 2:10
  company's attorney heads issued a formal demand for a jury
• 2:13
  trial, signaling the firm's determination to pursue the
• 2:17
  matter to its legal conclusion. The legal filing came mere hours
• 2:22
  after the CCDH made a public letter sent to the organization
• 2:26
  by Musk's attorney Alex Bureau, dated July 20th.
• 2:30
  The communication indicated that Xcorp was conducting an internal
• 2:34
  investigation to determine whether the CCDH is false and
• 2:38
  misleading claims about Twitter were actionable under federal
• 2:42
  law. The CCDH founder and chief
• 2:45
  executive issued a statement to NBC News in which they leveled
• 2:49
  sharp criticism at Musk. According to them, the tech
• 2:52
  mogul, also known for his leadership roles at SpaceX and
• 2:55
  Tesla, is resorting to authoritarian tactics to silent
• 2:59
  dissent. He asked.
• 3:01
  Musk is now showing he will stop at nothing to silence anyone who
• 3:05
  criticizes him for his own decisions and actions.
• 3:09
  The chief executive, Ahmed, was categorically in asserting that
• 3:12
  the CCD H's research demonstrated A disturbing trend
• 3:16
  of hate and disinformation spreading rapidly on the
• 3:19
  platform under Musk's ownership. In his view, the lawsuit filed
• 3:23
  by X Corp represented a direct attempt to thwart these efforts.
• 3:27
  They said Musk is trying to shoot the messenger who
• 3:30
  highlights the toxic content on his platform rather than deal
• 3:33
  with the toxic environment he's created.
• 3:35
  The CEO further vowed that the CCDH is independent.
• 3:38
  Research would continue unbated, promising Musk will not bully us
• 3:43
  into silence. The research report that seemed
• 3:47
  to particularly irk X Corp and trigger the legal reaction
• 3:51
  claimed that the platform had failed to take action against
• 3:54
  99% of 100 posts flagged by CCDH staff members.
• 3:59
  Now, these posts allegedly contain racism, homophobic, and
• 4:02
  antisemitic content, representing a clear violation
• 4:06
  of the platform's rules and policies.
• 4:08
  And since acquiring Twitter last year, Musk has been the force of
• 4:11
  intense scrutiny and widespread criticism.
• 4:14
  Top hate speech watchdog groups and activists have vocally
• 4:18
  condemned him for loosening restrictions on what can be
• 4:21
  posted on the platform. This move has raised many
• 4:24
  eyebrows among business analysts, too, who view his
• 4:27
  decision as erratic and impulsive, potentially
• 4:30
  undermining the platform's credibility in its future
• 4:33
  growth. The Center for Countering
• 4:35
  Digital Hates Research has received wide coverage with
• 4:38
  mentions and outlets like NBC News, The New York Times, The
• 4:41
  Washington Post, CNN, and many others.
• 4:44
  This widespread dissemination of the research findings has
• 4:47
  undoubtedly contributed to the heightening tensions between
• 4:51
  Xcorp and CCDH. Critics have also taken aim at
• 4:55
  Musk for the content he puts on his own account.
• 4:58
  The billionaire has been known to share controversial or
• 5:01
  conspiratorial content, prompting many to question his
• 5:04
  commitment to moderating harmful content on the platform he owns.
• 5:08
  Defending his approach. Musk his claim that he is acting
• 5:10
  in the interest of free speech and ideal he hopes to embody by
• 5:14
  transforming Twitter into a digital town square, now
• 5:18
  countering the narrative put forth by the CCDH and other
• 5:21
  critics. Musk his claim that the
• 5:23
  prevalence of hate speech on the platform is decreasing.
• 5:26
  He substantiated his claim with a tweet dating at November 23rd
• 5:31
  in which he stated that hate speech impressions were down by
• 5:35
  1/3. Accompanying the tweet was a
• 5:37
  graph seemingly derived from internal data, which depicted
• 5:40
  the downward trend in hate speech on the platform of the
• 5:44
  escalating conflict between X Corp and CCDH signals a
• 5:48
  turbulent era for social media platforms as they navigate the
• 5:52
  delicate balance between ensuring user safety and
• 5:55
  maintaining A commitment to free speech with legal proceedings.
• 5:59
  We're going to watch this closely to see how this case
• 6:02
  might set a precedent for future interactions between social
• 6:05
  media companies and watchdog groups including Meta, Google,
• 6:09
  etcetera. And meanwhile, X Corps
• 6:11
  aggressive legal stance against the CCDH underscores the
• 6:14
  enormous challenges and the high stakes involved in the fight
• 6:18
  against online hate speech and disinformation in our digital
• 6:23
  society on social media and online in general.
• 6:27
  I want to say thank you for listening to the show today.
• 6:30
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• 6:41
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• 6:44
  Thank you for becoming part of this community.
• 6:46
  Also, I want to ask you to please take care of yourselves
• 6:49
  and each other and I will see you in the next one.