Elon Musk, Linda Yaccarino accused of bullying research group for reporting on hateful content on X

The owners of Twitter have been accused of trying to bully anti-hate campaigners into silence by using threatening legal action. The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) was targeted by X Corp, who dismissed the CCDH’s reports about the platform on hateful content on Twitter, now X, as “troubling and baseless.”

Despite Elon Musk’s promise to defend free speech when he purchased Twitter last year, CCDH’s chief executive, Imran Ahmed, labelled Musk’s actions as a “bold attempt to suppress honest criticism.”

Hate speech on the rise?
Recently, Musk rebranded Twitter as X. Since his takeover, the platform has faced allegations, including from former employees, of not effectively combating hate speech and misinformation. To counter them, Musk had claimed in December that hate speech on the platform had decreased by a third.

On Sunday the platform lifted the ban on Kanye West. West was suspended from the platform for antisemitic tweets, one of which seemingly displayed a symbol combining a swastika and the Star of David.

X’s allegations
In response to CCDH’s claims that X fails to address the majority of hateful messages from accounts with X Blue subscriptions, X Corp’s lawyer, Alex Spiro, criticized CCDH’s methodology.

Spiro stated that the article was a collection of inflammatory, misleading, and unsupported claims based on a superficial review of random tweets. Additionally, he alleged that CCDH received financial support from X Corp’s commercial competitors and government entities, and had ulterior motives.

Spiro’s letter further accused CCDH of trying to drive away advertisers and threatened possible legal action. It was revealed that X Corp’s advertising revenue had dropped by almost half since Musk’s $44 billion takeover in July.

X’s accusations lack factual basis, say CCDH
CCDH’s lawyer, Roberta Kaplan, responded to the accusations, describing the letter as “ridiculous” and lacking factual basis.

Kaplan saw it as an attempt to intimidate those who bravely advocate against incitement, hate speech, and harmful content online across platforms. CCDH clarified that it receives no funding from social media companies or government bodies, which would allow them to critique or praise both without any bias.