An Anti- Hate organization is threatening to sue for reporting on hate speech on the social networking site
The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) Using Twitter Data to “Scave” the Terms of Service of Musk and Twitter
The lawsuit comes as Musk’s chaotic management of the company and abrupt changes in policies and features have sent many users to Twitter alternatives, including rival Meta’s newly launched Threads, and as Twitter’s advertising revenue has plunged.
To create these reports, X Corp. claims that the CCDH “intentionally and unlawfully” scraped data from Twitter in violation of its terms of service. X Corp. alleges that Brandwatch gave the CCDH unauthorized access to Twitter’s data. The lawsuit claims that the CCDH obtained the login details for another customer, allowing them to access the service without any knowledge of Brandwatch. Brandwatch did not respond to The Verge’s request for comment.
The suit says the Center for Countering Digital Hate broke federal law by using data from the social media site. It claims that the group cherry picks posts to make it look like the site is filled with harmful content in order to silence users.
It also comes at a moment when Republican lawmakers and right-wing activists are claiming that researchers who study online disinformation are actually trying to censor contrary views.
Hateful comments on Musk’s Twitter page after he suspended a British man for allegedly promoting his campaign against the Thailand soccer team in Thailand
Musk frequently uses heavy-handed tactics to take aim at critics. In December he suspended several journalists who covered the company (he reinstated most of them days later, under pressure from press freedom advocates), and banned a user who posted about the movements of his private jet using publicly available information. Musk commissioned a private investigator to dig into a British man who had criticized his efforts to save the soccer team in Thailand.
The social networking site said that views of posts that are offensive have declined. “Free expression and platform safety are not at odds,” the company wrote in a blog post on Monday.
CCDH and other outside researchers have tracked increasing levels of hate speech on the platform since Musk bought it last fall. white supremacists, far-right extremists, and Qanon conspiracy theorists can again be posted on the internet, thanks to the entrepreneur who claims to be a free speech maximalist. Over the weekend, he agreed to let Ye back into the studio after six months of suspension for posting an swastika inside a Star of David.
Among the research that CCDH is best known for is a 2021 study showing that 12 people were behind most of the misleading claims and lies about COVID-19 vaccines on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
