Elon Musk's X suffered a defeat after its case against the anti-hate speech non-profit Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) was dismissed.
On Monday (25.03.24), U.S. District Judge Charles Breyer ruled in favour of the CCDH and accused Musk and his social media app - formerly Twitter - of "punishing the Defendants for their speech".
The judge wrote in the dismissal: "Sometimes it is unclear what is driving a litigation, and only by reading between the lines of a complaint can one attempt to surmise a plaintiff’s true purpose.
"Other times, a complaint is so unabashedly and vociferously about one thing that there can be no mistaking that purpose. This case represents the latter circumstance. This case is about punishing the Defendants for their speech."
Musk got his attorney, Alex Spiro, to send a letter to the CCDH threatening legal action, but they didn't back down, prompting the billionaire businessman to take them to court.
The Tesla boss vowed to "pull the mask off this organisation" after he was called out by the non-profit and told them "they should save their words for the jury."
Embarrassingly, there will be no jury.
Musk had accused the CCDH of trying to tarnish X's reputation and deter advertisers with its research it conducted that found that X allegedly fails to act on 99 per cent of hate posted by Twitter Blue subscribers.
Center for Countering Digital Hate CEO and founder Imran Ahmed said: "Throughout Elon Musk's loud, hypocritical campaign of harassment, abuse, and lawfare designed to avoid taking responsibility for his own decisions, CCDH has remained quietly confident in the quality and integrity of our research and advocacy.
"Our aim has always been to alert the world to corporate failures that undermine human rights and civil liberties."
Breyer said: "It is impossible to read the complaint and not conclude that X Corp. is far more concerned about CCDH's speech than it is its data collection methods.
"The Court notes, too, that X Corp.'s motivation in bringing this case is evident.
"X Corp. has brought this case in order to punish CCDH for CCDH publications that criticized X Corp. — and perhaps in order to dissuade others who might wish to engage in such criticism."
X plans to appeal the decision.
A statement on the micro-blogging site read: "Today a federal court in San Francisco issued a decision in the case X brought against the Center for Countering Digital Hate for illegally obtaining platform data to create misleading research. X disagrees with the court's decision and plans to appeal."
