Elon Musk has over the past 12 months threatened authorized motion towards tech opponents, workers and individuals who use Twitter, which he owns. Now he’s additionally taking intention at a corporation that research hate speech and misinformation on social media.
X Corp., the mum or dad firm of the social media firm, despatched a letter on July 20 to the Center for Countering Digital Hate, a nonprofit that conducts analysis on social media, accusing the group of constructing “a series of troubling and baseless claims that appear calculated to harm Twitter generally, and its digital advertising business specifically,” and threatening to sue.
The letter cited analysis printed by the Center for Countering Digital Hate in June analyzing hate speech on Twitter, which Mr. Musk has renamed X.com. The analysis consisted of eight papers, together with one which discovered that Twitter had taken no motion towards 99 % of the 100 Twitter Blue accounts the middle reported for “tweeting hate.” The letter known as the analysis “false, misleading or both” and mentioned the group had used improper methodology.
The letter added that the middle was funded by Twitter’s opponents or international governments “in support of an ulterior agenda.”
Imran Ahmed, the chief govt of the Center for Countering Digital Hate, mentioned, “Elon Musk’s actions represent a brazen attempt to silence honest criticism and independent research.” He added that Mr. Musk needed to “stem the tide of negative stories and rebuild his relationship with advertisers.”
The heart additionally mentioned it did “not accept any funding from tech companies, governments, or their affiliates.”
Mr. Musk didn’t reply to a request for remark.
Twitter’s promoting business has been struggling beneath the possession of Mr. Musk, who purchased the corporate final 12 months. U.S. advert income for the 5 weeks from April 1 to the primary week of May was $88 million, down 59 % from a 12 months earlier. Advertisers could have been spooked by Mr. Musk’s adjustments to the social community, together with the removing of guidelines of what can or can’t be mentioned on the service and extra adverts that includes on-line playing and marijuana merchandise.
In May, Mr. Musk employed Linda Yaccarino, a former prime promoting govt for NBCUniversal, to turn out to be Twitter’s chief govt.
The letter was not less than the third authorized risk or motion by X Corp. within the final two months. In May, it despatched a letter to Satya Nadella, Microsoft’s chief govt, accusing the tech large of improperly utilizing its information. This month, it additionally despatched a letter to Meta, which owns Facebook and Instagram, saying it had copied Twitter’s commerce secrets and techniques when creating Threads, a brand new social app.
Source: www.nytimes.com