A war of words between X Corp., the company formerly known as Twitter, and the Washington, D.C.-based Center for Countering Digital Hate (CCDH) has moved into the courts. Following at least two letters between the entities, X Corp. filed a complaint against CCDH alleging breach of contract, violation of the computer fraud and abuse act, intentional interference with contractual relations, and inducing breach of contract.
The X Corp complaint alleges CCDH’s U.S.- and U.K.-based operations are “activist organizations masquerading as research agencies, funded and supported by unknown organizations, individuals and potentially even foreign governments with ties to legacy media companies [which] have embarked on a scare campaign to drive advertisers away from the X platform.” The X platform includes the social media service formerly known as Twitter.
The complaint further alleges CCDH unlawfully accessed data regarding the X platform in two ways: By scraping the data in a manner that violated its user agreement, and by convincing an unknown third party to share login credentials to a secured database. CCDH then supposedly used data garnered from the database “in public reports and articles it prepared to make it appear as if X is overwhelmed by harmful content, and then used that contrived narrative to call for companies to stop advertising on X.”
X Corp. is seeking unspecified damages, and that CCDH be permanently enjoined from accessing licensed materials provided to the entity that gave CCDH access and using any materials already obtained.
A copy of the complaint, which was filed in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California (3:23-cv-03836) is available here: https://bit.ly/45d6ssq
CCDH Founder and CEO Imran Ahmed sent The NonProfit Times the following statement in response to a request for comment: “Elon Musk’s latest legal threat is straight out of the authoritarian playbook – he is now showing he will stop at nothing to silence anyone who criticizes him for his own decisions and actions. The Center for Countering Digital Hate’s research shows that hate and disinformation is spreading like wildfire on the platform under Musk’s ownership and this lawsuit is a direct attempt to silence those efforts. People don’t want to see or be associated with hate, antisemitism, and the dangerous content that we all see proliferating on X. Musk is trying to ‘shoot the messenger’ who highlights the toxic content on his platform rather than deal with the toxic environment he’s created. The CCDH’s independent research won’t stop – Musk will not bully us into silence.”
The suit was filed following a back-and-forth pair of letters between X Corp and CCDH. CCDH’s media department did not offer comment regarding the resources it was prepared to use to defend itself, nor whether the publicity surrounding the exchange had resulted in outside offers of support.
According to a July 20 letter purportedly from X Corp’s attorney to Ahmed, which was posted on the CCDH website, the CCDH “has made a series of troubling and baseless claims that appear calculated to harm Twitter generally, and its digital advertising business specifically.” The letter calls out CCDH’s alleged activities, which included reporting 100 tweets for supposed violation of Twitter’s posting rules and then claiming little had been done regarding policing or removing the tweets.
The letter from X Corp also noted that the platform hosts more than 500 million tweets daily, and dismisses CCDH claims, which were made in an article the organization posted about its efforts, as “false, misleading, or both, and they are not supported by anything that could credibly called research.”
In a July 31 letter to X Corp’s attorney, CCDH’s counsel dismissed the “ridiculous letter,” saying in part “These allegations not only have no basis in fact (your letter states note) but they represent a disturbing effort to intimidate those who have the courage to advocate against incitement, hate speech and harmful content online, to conduct research and analysis regarding the drivers of such disinformation, and to publicly release the findings of that research, even when the findings may be critical of certain platforms.”
CCDH counsel’s letter goes on to claim “Twitter did not spend its time and resources addressing the hate and disinformation that CCDH had identified, despite Twitter’s purported commitment to addressing hate speech on its platform. Instead, your clients decided to ‘shoot the messenger’ by attempting to intimidate CCDH and Mr. Ahmed.”
CCDH counsel’s letter further states “[Y]our July 20 letter doesn’t stop there. You go on to state that there is “no doubt that CCDH intends to harm Twitter’s business” and warn that you are “investigating” whether CCDH has violated Section 43(a) of the Lanham Act. That threat is bogus and you know it. None of the examples cited in your letter constitutes the kind of advertisement or commercial speech that would trigger the Lanham Act. To the contrary, the statements you complain about constitute political, journalistic, and research work on matters of significant public concern, which obviously are not constrained by the Lanham Act in any way. Moreover, as a nonprofit working to stop online hate, CCDH is obviously not in competition with Twitter, which makes your allegations of a Lanham Act injury even more fanciful.”
The Lanham Act, which was passed by Congress in 1946, establishes a national standard of trademark registration and protection. Both letters are available here: https://bit.ly/3ONfMOc
According to the CCDH’s Form 990, the nonprofit’s “work encompasses research, campaigns and policy to increase the economic, reputational and political costs of all parts of the infrastructure – the actors, systems and culture – that support and often profit from hate and disinformation. The center works with academics and practitioners in diverse fields, such as political science, behavioural psychology, neurology, the law, countering violent extremism (CVE), counterterrorism and child protection to develop strategies that strengthen tolerance and democracy, and counterstrategies to new forms of hate and disinformation.”
The Center for Countering Digital Hate was founded in 2021. For the calendar year ending Dec. 31, 2021, a Form 990 (the only one on record) reported just less than $1.5 million in contributions and grants, $837,779 in net assets.
A phone number for X did not allow calls to be completed. Emails sent to the press department of both X and Twitter received an automated response reading “We’ll get back to you soon.” Twitter had previously been known for responding to press inquiries with the poop emoji, but discontinued the practice in mid-July.
