Musk loses suit against hate speech watchdog

Bangkok Post Group

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

Transcript

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.

01:49 [BLANK_AUDIO]

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