Musk loses suit against hate speech watchdog
A U.S. judge on Monday threw out Elon Musk's lawsuit against a nonprofit group that faulted him for allowing a rise in hate speech on his social media platform X, formerly Twitter. - REUTERS
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00:00 A U.S. judge on Monday threw out a lawsuit filed by Elon Musk against a non-profit group
00:06 that tracks online hate speech.
00:09 In his decision, the judge said it was "evident" that Musk sued the Center for Countering Digital
00:14 Hate because he didn't like that it faulted him for allowing a rise in hate speech on
00:18 his platform X, formerly known as Twitter, and he thought CCDH's research would hurt
00:23 the platform's image and scare off advertisers.
00:27 The judge wrote "XCorp has brought this case in order to punish CCDH for CCDH publications
00:33 that criticized XCorp and perhaps in order to dissuade others who might wish to engage
00:38 in such criticism."
00:40 The decision is a blow for Musk, who has styled himself as a "champion" of free speech,
00:45 but since paying $44 billion for Twitter in 2022, Musk has faced widespread criticism
00:50 for firing staff at X who policed misinformation and for allowing more harmful and abusive
00:55 posts.
00:56 Musk's own speech has often drawn complaints.
00:59 In November 2023, he endorsed an anti-Semitic post on X that said members of the Jewish
01:04 community were stoking hatred against white people, saying the user spoke "the actual
01:09 truth."
01:11 Musk has denied being anti-Semitic and sought to make amends, including in a January visit
01:15 to the former Nazi death camp Auschwitz in southern Poland.
01:19 While there, he claimed the platform was making progress.
01:23 The outside audits that we've had done, at least the ones that we've had done, show that
01:29 there's the least amount of anti-Semitism on X.
01:33 If you look at all the other social... it's never going to be zero if you've got 600 million
01:38 people on a platform.
01:39 An attorney for CCDH said Monday's decision shows that Musk "cannot bend the rule of law
01:44 to his will."
01:46 X, in a statement, said it plans to appeal.
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