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X is suing CCDH, seeking to protect the public’s right to free expression. The company accuses the organization of gaining access to X data without permission and deleting the data from the platform, which violates the company’s terms of service.

The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) is a British organization with offices in London and Washington, DC. It campaigns for big tech firms to stop providing services to individuals who, in their opinion, may promote hate and misinformation. While an organization’s motives may appear to be good, its activities can be threatening, creating heavy censorship and violating the public’s right to free expression.

In June 2023, CCDH reported that after Elon Musk’s acquisition of X (formerly Twitter), the company “fails to act on 99% of hate posted by Twitter Blue subscribers.” The company responded by filing a lawsuit against CCDH on July 31, 2023, stating that they “falsely claim it had statistical support showing the platform is overwhelmed with harmful content.”

On Tuesday, X posted on its blog an explanation of its actions taken regarding CCDH. The company clarified that platform users are free to be themselves. This means that people of all backgrounds and beliefs should have the right to express themselves freely, as long as they do so within the law.

“Free expression and platform safety are not at odds. We are proving this every day through innovative enforcement policies that have helped reduce hateful content viewed on the platform. Today, more than 99.99% of post impressions are healthy,” X wrote.

The CCDH and its supporters are actively working to validate false and misleading claims. Their activity is aimed at encouraging advertisers to stop investing in X. This is a frequent tactic of the organization. CCDH has carried out several campaigns since 2018 aimed at pressuring advertisers to stop advertising on the platforms of targeted companies.

X reported that “recently Brandwatch made X aware that the CCDH gained access to X’s data without Brandwatch’s authorization, and that the purported CCDH ‘research’ cited in a Bloomberg article ‘contained metrics used out of context to make unsubstantiated assertions about X (formerly Twitter).’ Additionally, the CCDH has recently scraped X’s platform, which is a violation of our terms of service.”

These are the reasons X filed a lawsuit against CCDH and its backers. X not only denies all claims made by the organization but through its own investigation has identified several ways in which CCDH is actively working to prevent free speech. This includes:

• Targeting people on all platforms who speak about issues the CCDH doesn’t agree with.
• Attempting to coerce the deplatforming of users whose views do not conform to the CCDH’s ideological agenda.
• Targeting free-speech organizations by focusing on their revenue stream to remove free services for people.  
• Attempting to illegally gain unauthorized access to social media platform data and to misuse that data.

Article edited by @SmokeyShorts; follow him on Twitter

© 2023, Eva Fox | Verum News. All rights reserved.