X threatens to sue non-profit that tracks hate speech on platform

X, the company formerly known as Twitter, threatened to sue a nonprofit organization that was tracking the spread of hate speech on the platform, the organization said Monday. 

The Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH), an organization that tracks online hate speech and misinformation, sent a letter Monday to Alex Spiro, an attorney that represents X owner Elon Musk, cautioning the company against “any further attempts …  to threaten or intimidate our clients.” 

The letter also asked X to “preserve all documents and other information” related to disinformation and hate speech on the platform. 

The CCDH said it received a letter earlier this month from Spiro threatening to sue over allegations of “misleading claims” about Twitter. 

The letter targets a study the CCDH posted in June that found Twitter failed to act on 99 percent of hate posted by subscribers to Twitter Blue, the paid feature that lets users purchase verification marks. Spiro’s letter called the claims “false, misleading, or both” and argued that the CCDH “intends to harm Twitter’s business by driving advertisers away from the platform with incendiary claims.”

Attorneys representing the CCDH called the letter “ridiculous” and doubled down on the research cited in the report. They also pointed out that the CCDH regularly published reports about other social media platforms, including rival platforms such as Instagram, Facebook and TikTok. 

CCDH executive officer Imran Ahmed said in a statement that Musk’s actions “represent a brazen attempt to silence honest criticism and independent research, in the desperate hope that he can stem the tide of negative stories and rebuild his relationship with advertisers.”

“This should be the last time anyone dares to claim Musk is a ‘free speech absolutist’ – he is in fact a bully who uses attack dogs to terrorize his opponents into silence,” Ahmed added. 

Musk bought Twitter in October for $44 billion. Last week, the platform began transitioning its branding to X, which Musk said he plans to create into his “everything app.”

So far, changes that have been made have largely been on the branding side, and the site has operated as it had before. However, in the months since Musk’s takeover, the company had peeled back some of its content moderation measures and made changes to how users are verified on the platform.